I Forbid the Banns! — page 39: what you’re looking at

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

ON THE ORIGIN OF A MAN. 29 ‘You have said nothing about the general’s opposition to the suit of the penniless captain of artillery, who found it difficult to live within the limits of his pay—how the young couple stole aboard a steamer that carried a chaplain, and got married the day they left the island, and the irate father standing onacliff shaking his fist at the smoke of the steamer that dwindled away in the distance.” “JT have not your imagination, Miss Travers,” said he. “The fact of the matter wasthat the general was a poor man and my father had some thousands a year besides his pay of eleven and eightpence a day. The marriage took place in England after the lapse of a year, and—well, here I am.” “And there,” said Miss Travers as the steamer rounded a point— there is Jacob’s Ladder.” Charlton turned about—he had been standing with his back to the bulwarks—and saw on the starboard quarter of the steamera precipitous cliff with a stairway built up its face and with a flagstaff at the summit. On the opposite side of the deep valley were equally precipitous cliffs, and in the far depths of the valley appeared the spire of a church. The tinkle of the engine room telegraph brought the pro- peller to a standstill. ‘Then a seaman who was calling out the soundings was heard all over the vessel. “ Let go,” sang out the captain, and the roar of the chain cable rushing out swallowed up all other words. The Carnarvon Castle lay beneath the grim shadow of the island, rising and falling as the waves rushed under her keel and swirled about the blades of the motionless propeller. “That is Jacob’s Ladder indeed,” said Charlton. ‘Tt is Jacob’s Ladder indeed,” said Mr. Southcote, coming behind him. “ But you will have difficulty in discovering the angels ascending and descending upon it.” “There are certainly no angels, so far as I can see,” said Marian. | “No, just the opposite—soldiers,” said Cyril. C@ONNIELOOKS (2)