His Grace — page 156: what you’re looking at

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

ISO PAN HIS GRACE. was displeased when I confessed that Miss St. George had failed to secure my personal admiration. “Of course,” said she, with the air of worldly wis- dom which she was fond of assuming and which always seemed to me rather pathetic, considering what a goose the poor woman really was, “of course the girl is try- ing to catch him. Unfortunately that is what they all try to do, and there is no help for it. Still it doesn’t follow that she may not make as good a wife as another. I must manage to see her somehow and have a talk with her.”’ I suppose it was rather stupid of me to observe that even if Miss St. George should not succeed in espous- ing the head of the family, the honor of having brought future generations of Gascoignes into the world might still be hers; for I conscientiously believed the ‘match to be an undesirable one, and I ought to have done what I could towards imbuing Lady Charles with my sentiments. But the moment that she realized the rivalry which existed between her son and her nephew she took a side; and naturally it was the wrong side. Without admitting this in so many words, she neverthe- less made it plain to a not very acute bystander, and I perceived, to my regret, that Hurstbourne was not going to be scolded or thwarted any more. As for me, I received a wholly unmerited scolding from Nora, who chose to take it for granted that I had talked her over with Lady Deverell, and who, when I could not deny that she and her actions had been made the subject of some discussion, said it was rather un- fair to discuss her behind her back. She was slightly mollified on hearing that I had not divulged her inten- tion of jilting Mr. Burgess; but I did not deem the Gomicboo cS (EC) m