His Grace — page 172: what you’re looking at

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

166 HIS GRACE. held for some seconds in an affectionate clasp while he explained to what circumstances the delightful surprise of his visit was due. He had undertaken to conduct a mission in a northern parish for a very dear friend of his, he said—I wonder why parsons of his type always describe brother parsons as their “ very dear friends ’’— and he had only been obliged to come a little out of his way in order to give himself the pleasure of a short talk with us both. He would be very glad to lunch with us, and was very sorry that he had just missed seeing another very dear friend of his, Lady Deverell, who, he believed, had been staying recently in our neighborhood. For the life of me I couldn’t resist asking him whether he hadn’t heard from her since she had left Lavenham ; and, as he was a truthful man, he admitted, with a quick side-glance at me, that he had. Then we went into the house together, Nora looking very much like a prisoner who is conscious that even a plea of guilty will not avail to mitigate the punishment due to crime. I scarcely remember what we talked about during a meal which the presence of the butler and two footmen rendered more formidable than it would have been, had we ventured to dispense with their services, as Nora and I usually did; but I remember that the labor of keeping up conversation fell entirely upon our guest and myself, my sister hardly opening her lips from start to finish. At the earliest permissible moment I mum- bled some excuse and fled into my den. Mr. Burgess had mentioned that it would be necessary for him to catch the four o’clock train, so that there was nota great deal of time to be lost, and my earnest hope was Gomichboo cS co m