His Grace — page 11: what you’re looking at

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

HIS GRACE. CHAPTER I. THE SACKED SOLICITOR. In the month of May, 1887, at which time, as will be remembered, preparations were being made for the fit celebrating of the jubilee of our most gracious Sovereign Lady Queen Victoria, I, Philip Martyn, was in a frame of mind very far removed from being jubi- lant. I don’t mean to say that I am, or was, one whit less loyal than other people—on the contrary, I am one of those quiet, law-abiding persons who are bound to be loyal to the form of government under which they live, and, notwithstanding my devotion to the House of Hanover, everything leads me to believe that, had a British Republic been proclaimed before the date of my birth, I should have been unreservedly loyal to that—but I suppose that with the generality of us our personal affairs and interests occupy a somewhat larger share of our attention than those of the nation at large, and the truth is that, on the particular after- noon to which I allude, I had clean forgotten the circumstance of her Majesty’s having reigned over us with honor and distinction for half acentury. My per- Gomicboo cS Ceo) im