I Forbid the Banns! — page 49: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER VII. ON THE LIEBIG PRINCIPLE. HE middle-aged lady with the flying bonnet-strings, that suggested earnest packing of trunks, had been found two hours before, sitting in a very forlorn attitude and breath- ing very hard, on one of the steps of Jacob’s Ladder by Julian Charlton as he made the ascent. She had only mounted about sixty steps, but clearly that sixty had been enough for her. She looked very forlorn as she clutched the hand rail, and was quite oblivious to the fact that she was displaying an entire boot of a rather large size, with elastic sides considerably worn, and quite three inches of woolen stocking, resembling in its creases the folds of a fasting boa constrictor. Mr. Charlton did not laugh when he came upon this picture. He raised his hat as he made the attempt to step over the prominent boot that rested on the plank of the stair- way beneath that on which the lady was sitting. She looked at him rather anxiously, and then glanced up the long slope of steps that suggested a drawing book illustration of the principles of perspective. Charlton could see in outline against the sky a figure that did not seem any- thing like so stout as the obstruction in front of him. ‘“‘ Sir,” sobbed the obstructive lady, and then continued sobbing for breath, until Mr. Charlton wondered how the hooks and eyes of her jacket could stand thestrain. They were creaking audibly. “Sir.” After a few minutes she was able to say a word or two—mostly monosyllables—and to let Mr. Charlton know that she and her niece had attempted the ascent of the ladder. “She said it would be 39 CORNIECLOOOKS (E(0)