I Forbid the Banns! — page 357: what you’re looking at

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

ON THE MOMENT AFTER THE PLUNGE. 347 Lady Rushton. I took it for granted that you were married.”’ “Then you took too much for granted; we were never married.” “And yet everyone visited her,” “That is everyone’s own lookout. Oh, I cannot talk over this miserable business.”’ He had risen to his feet. | She rose with some reluctance. What was the good of his making this confession if he meant to go away, she wondered. “It is a miserable business,” she remarked as she put her hand on his arm. ‘ You have my sympathy—all the sympathy of my heart.” “Thank you, thank you,” said he as he led her up the Staircase. His mood had changed in a moment. The force of making that confession—of saying those words, ‘she is not my wife,” had altered his mood in a moment. He had no further desire to plunge. The conditions of the pastime in which he had been indulging were changed. It was becoming dangerous. There was protection in the neighborhood of the shoulder blades of the marchioness. He saw them gleaming like | crossed sabers in a trophy of arms. ‘“ You have my sympathy,’ she murmured. “Do you not believe me? Oh, here is that tiresome Cyril. You will not leave me with him ?”’ ‘“T have no choice,” said he. “You are a weak man,” said she, somewhat scornfully. ‘“ You were weak once before, and misery was the result ; you are weak again, and must I have thought for both of us?” He did not answer. The mood of acting had passed from him. She had made him an artistic failure because she had insisted on takin® him seriously. What chance has CONNIELIOOKS (2(6)