I Forbid the Banns! — page 190: what you’re looking at

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

180 “7 FORBID THE BANNS!” her lover. They laughed because it was the springtime, and the soul of the season had passed into their souls. Every bird of the woodland was singing this evening. The sound was like that of a chorus trained to interpret one theme—and one theme alone. A cuckoo was behind them and another could but faintly be heard in the distance, where a dark blue haze seemed to be spread about the trunks of the trees beneath the motion- less leaves. Above the cloudlike foliage of the elms the swallows wheeled. It was not until the terraces of the Court were reached that the rooks went cawing above them on their way to their nests. Bertha ran upstairs, and Julian followed, after a conversa- tion with the butler regarding the Clos Vougeot. He met the housekeeper at the head of the staircase. ‘‘This is a pretty state of things, Mrs. Barwell,’’ said he. ‘I hope we shall have some sort of a dinner.’’ ‘*A very poor one, sir; not what I would have liked,’’ said she. ‘‘A few little things. Spring soup is the most we can do; trout, if you don’t mind—it should be salmon—and a lamb cutlet with peas, and an omelet: a poor home-coming dinner, Master Julian.”’ “It will do admirably,’’ said he. ‘‘And now, what room can I go to, to dip my face in water?”’ ‘What room, sir?’’ “Yes. Isuppose Miss—us Charlton isin the pink room.’’ ‘“She is there, sir; but you will find an extra basin in the dressing room’’—and the housekeeper went to the door of the bedroom. ‘‘No, no,’’ said Julian quickly. ‘‘I—ah—do you mean to say that there is only the one room fit for a person to go to, Mrs. Barwell?’’ . “Why, of course, sir, there’s only the one. I asked you about getting ready the other rooms, you may remember, sir, and you said that nothing was to be done yet awhile. When you telegraphed yesterday I got the pink roam mide a= bat