I Forbid the Banns! — page 197: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XXVIII. ON THE TYPE OF THE FAITHFUL. M* AND MRS. CHARLTON were away in the depths of the woodland glades when they should have been sitting at their breakfast. This was the more remarkable, the butler told Mrs. Bar- well, as they had plainly not retired until a very late hour, for he had found all the candles in the chandeliers in the — drawing room burnt down to the very sockets. It seemed to him that they had only retired when the candles had actu- ally been burnt out. | He earnestly hoped that Mrs. Charlton was not one of those ladies who are given to late hours not only in town, where it is quite natural, but in the country also, where it has a bad effect upon the maidservants. Mrs. Barwell had a plausible theory to account for madam’s liking forlate hours. It was founded upon her acquaintance with the fact that when it is night in England it is day in Australia—she had heard this from a trustworthy authority, she assured the incredulous butler—and therefore it stood to reason that, as Mrs. Charlton had been accustomed all her life tospend the night time in the broad daylight, it was only natural that it would take her some little time to adapt herself to a country where, owing to the blessing of Provi- dence, nights were nights. When, however, Mrs. Charlton returned with a bright and rosy face, which she buried among her primroses—just as though she were a young maiden hiding her blushes, as the housekeeper afterward remarked—she did not suggest the 187 CONMNIELIOOKS (€(0)