His Grace — page 187: what you’re looking at

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

HIS GRACE. ISI sour ; and so, for the matter of that, did my esteemed friend Lady Deverell. ‘“So you have come up from the country,” were the first words with which her ladyship greeted me. “ You have been sent for perhaps? Not that you are likely to do much good, if all that I hear is true. Have you brought Nora with you?” I replied that I had not done so, as I had hoped only to be detained afew days in London. In answer to further interrogatories, I had to admit that my stay was likely to be a longer one than I had anticipated ; whereupon Lady Deverell surprised me a little by rejoining : | “Then I hope you will let Nora come to me while you are here. You can’t leave her at Hurstbourne Castle all by herself; and really, if you will believe me, Lady Charles Gascoigne is not the sort of chaperon whom your poor dear mother would have chosen for her daughter. May I write to Nora to-morrow and tell her that you consent to my taking charge of her for a time? I am obliged to take my niece about, so that she need not be afraid of being dull, and I am sure you, on your side, must feel that she will be rather safer with me than with those people.” No doubt she would ; although the obstacles which I saw in the way of her accepting hospitality from “ those people ” might not be precisely the ones alluded to by Lady Deverell. I was not quick-witted enough to guess why this old friend of ours was so anxious to assume the temporary guardianship of my sister; I thought she really meant to be kind, and I thought also that I might do a great deal worse than take advantage of her proffered kindness. It was evident to me that I cS €o m Eomic 90 0)