His Grace — page 19: what you’re looking at

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

HIS GRACE. 13 “Not with the same liberality,” I replied somewhat gloomily, “as it has treated you. I have not losta wealthy and noble uncle, for the sufficient reason that I have no wealthy or noble uncle to lose. At least, I believe Uncle John is pretty well off ; but heis not dead or going to die; and when he does die, nothing can be more certain than that he won’t leaveme a penny. At present he is anxious to make it clear to me that I shall not get many pence out of him even while he lives. All the same, I am glad to think that you are more fortunate.”’ “‘Qh, well,” he answered, with a laugh, “I don’t ex- pect my old uncle meant me to be any more fortunate than he could help. I haven’t an idea at this moment whether I am a rich man ora pauper; but I shall hear all.about it after the funeral to-morrow, I suppose. What’s up between you and your old man? Not a row, [ hope? It’s awful cheek for me to offer you ad- vice; but really, my dear old Martyn, I wouldn’t quar- rel with him if I were you. When all’s said and done, he has it in his power to make you or mar you—hasn’t he now?” That was Hurstbourne all over. People who think that they know him, but who are in reality far too stupid to be even remotely conscious of their own stupidity, are wont to describe him as an excitable, scatter- brained, pleasure-loving sort of fellow, and to assume as a matter of course that, because he likes amusing himself, his personal amusement must invariably oc: cupy the foremost place in his thoughts. How many of them, I. wonder, if they had just succeeded to a dukedom and were absolutely in the dark as to whether their strawberry-leaves had brought them, immense Gomme boo “S (E(0) m