His Grace — page 170: what you’re looking at

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

164 HIS GRACE. “Then why not'tell him so and have done with it?” I asked. ‘Yes, I shall have to tell him so; there’s no help for it: He isn’t a bad man, though I know you think he is ; and if it were in any way ‘nese abahig really is not possible ! ” ‘f Au for one single moment did I suppose thatvit was,” I returned rather impatiently. ‘ Write to him to-day and get the thing over. Depend upon it, you can break the sad news without breaking his elderly heart. It isn’t as if you had inherited a comfortable competence, you know.”’ Nora sighed and made no reply, which caused me to feel that I had expressed myself too brutally; but it was expecting a little too much of me to expect that, with all my troubles and anxieties, I should have any commiseration to spare for Mr, Burgess. Moreover, I was exasperated by the thought that my sister was about to break off her engagement with that old man not because she had no love for him (which of course she could not have) but because she loved somebody else who didn’t care a straw for her. “Ah, if only I had inherited a comfortable compe- tence! ’’ she exclaimed presently. “Then I shouldn’t be a drag upon you, and it wouldn’t be my duty to marry any man who was willing to support me. No- body could realize more clearly than I do that it is my duty to marry Mr. Burgess, and for the last few days I have been trying to bring myself to the point of doing my duty; but it’s no use. I can’t do it, Phil, and I must confess to him that I can’t.” There were tears in her eyes, and she looked so miserable that I ought to have said something kind and Eomichoo “S (E(0) m