I Forbid the Banns! — page 18: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

8 “7 FORBID THE BANNS!” not possibly be maintained without the expenditure of money. The transit of Venus, he explained— The tran- sit of Venus f But here his father, who, it was commonly reported, knew more than any living man of the aberrations of this particular planet, became distinctly discourteous in his language, and once more expressed a desire that Cyril might be removed by supernatural agency. Cyril, however, got all the money he asked for. He was now on his way to England, after resigning his post of private secretary to the Governor General of the Castaway Islands. As for the men who were now engaged with a few others in dealing out the cards for a game of poker in the smok- ing room, they were in the eyes of Cyril Southcote a very colorless lot. Waring was a captain in the Bayonetteers, and Julian Charlton was a young Englishman who pos- sessed a considerable amount of property to which he was now returning after traveling over the face of the globe. He was perhaps a colorless man. Most white men are. He had no subtle theories of life, and he had not spent any large sums of money in collecting data that might eventu- ally be applied to the solution of all psychological prob- lems. He was content to take people as he found them, and without asking searching questions. Before Cyril Southcote had been more than a few min- utes leaning over the steamer’s side, having lighted a fresh cigar, feeling that he had shown a considerable amount of adroitness—such an amount of adroitness as he was justified in expecting from himself—in turning the flying fish illustration, that threatened to be a fiasco, to his own advantage, he heard a voice beside him. ‘What was the subject of that very interesting conver- sation that you had with Mr. Charlton and Captain Waring?” asked an agreeable voice at his elbow. CORMNIELIOOKS (€(0)