His Grace — page 166: what you’re looking at

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

160 HIS GRACE. principles, and, after a good deal of humming and haw- ing, he brought himself to the point of making sundry revelations which caused my jaw to drop. I had been pretty sure that some such revelations were in store for me; but I had not imagined that things were quite so bad as they appeared to be, and it was absolutely necessary to warn him that he could not go on at that rate much longer without being quite unequivocally and decisively ruined. 3 He was a little impressed by the stern rebuke which I thought fit to address to him; but only a little. “ Oh, that’ll be all right,’ he concluded by saying ; “don’t you worry your sober old head about it. Everybody is more or less in debt, and, so long as these rascals get the exorbitant interest that they de- mand, it won’t pay them to ruin me, you may be sure. Besides, I’m going to be awfully economical. Besides that again, I’m going to win a pot of money over the spring handicaps. Why, my dear, good fellow, if noth- ing else would keep me from going to smash, I should be kept from it by the thought of Paul Gascoigne’s triumph in my discomfiture.” “It would be hard to discomfit him and easy to dis- comfit you,” I returned, with a sigh; “ but I suppose you are bent upon attempting the more difficult enter- prise, and there isn’t much use in cautioning you that you are almost certain to fail. If you would reflect connectedly for a matter of five short minutes, you would see that the game isn’t worth the candle; only of course you won’t reflect.” I can’t think why people are so apt to laugh at me when nothing has been more remote from my intentions than to be funny; but Hurstbourne has always acted Gomichboo cS (El) m