I Forbid the Banns! — page 397: what you’re looking at

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

ON THE ADVANTAGES OF A CLEW. 387 from the window show the driver half a sovereign as he got into the hansom, and she heard the rattle of the vehicle out of the square. It was sometime before she had sufficiently recovered to go downstairs and explain to the footman that Mr. Charlton had been cailed away suddenly on important business. The footman appeared to be profoundly indif- ferent to all business considerations. He opened the door, and the lady went down the steps. At the risk of a prosecution for furious driving, the hansom driver earned his half sovereign. The railway station was reached a minute before the departure of the train. At the end of that minute Charlton was on his way to Utterport. : He had no thought but the one—“ Stall J be in time?” The rattle of the axles of the train and the reverbera- tions of the banks and the cuttings seemed to be shouting that question, “ Shall [ be in time?” The letter from the steamship company had not stated any hour for the departure of the vessel on ‘ Thursday the 17th inst.”’ Surely it was not too much to infer from that that the vessel would not sail until late in the day. He had great hope that he would arrive in time to leap aboard the steamer and either bring Bertha back with him or go on with her to Australia. The train stopped at many stations on the route to Utterport, and the station-masters were of that highly respectable class of men who enjoy a chat with the passen- gers, and are ready to give ample expression to their views on any agricultural question. Many such chats were enjoyed by everyone, except Charlton, in the train. “A highly respectable man, that station master,” a fellow-passenger remarked to Julian, after an unusually protracted conversation on the Irish question, “A highly respectable man, sir ; he was once a bank porter.” The passenger seemed to be under the impression that EONMICLIOO|KS 4)