I Forbid the Banns! — page 46: what you’re looking at

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

36 “7 FORBID THE BANNS!” “You made a pilgrimage to this place, I suppose, in order to realize the scene.”’ “Not I. The steamer was on its way to England when the machinery broke down, two days ago, necessitating the Captain’s calling at St. Helena for repairs. Of course as the chance—as I called it—came to me, I took a boat ashore and—well, you know the rest.” She nodded, with her eyes looking, not as they had been, into his face, but out to where the sun was sinking into the sea, out of a cloudless sky. ‘“Fate,’’ she said, as if she were communing with herself. “Fate.” Then she looked at her companion. ‘“ It is very flattering to one’s sense of one’s own importance in the world—in the universe, I should say—to feel that there isa power that puts itself to a large amount of trouble to do one a good turn—or a bad turn, as the case may be. You call that power Fate, do you not ?” “Yes,” said he. “I call everything that happens Fate. It saves one a lot of trouble.”’ “You are not so reverent as Count Cenci,” said she; ‘he referred everything to Heaven.” “Count Cenci lived in an age when theology was an exact science,’ said he. ‘And we are the subjects of the greatest Mohammedan > state that has ever existed in the world,” said she. ‘“ Sup- pose we descend to level ground again—in every sense. My aunt will think that she is being treated very badly. She will forget that it is Fate that is doing it all. She will only blame us. Such is the blindness of middle-aged per- sons who have attended Sunday school during the early ' years of their life, and class the Mohammedans among the heathen. My aunt remains on the plain, while we are on the heights.” “You are the most singular girl I have ever met,” said he. ‘ What is your name ?” (CONMMICLYOO|KS. EO)