His Grace — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

14 HIS GRACE. wealth or comparative poverty would deem the fortunes or misfortunes of a humble lawyer worthy of their at- tention? Yet I verily believe that Hurstbourne, after I had told him something of the troubles and perplexi- ties to which I was a prey, was a good deal more anx- ious about my prospects than he was about his own. “Well, we must get you out of that beastly office somehow,” he said at length ; “ there’s no good in stick- ing to work that you hate—especially after the old boy has given you such a broad hint to retire. I wonder whether I couldn’t get some sort of appointment for you—a county-court judgeship, don’t’ you know, or something. I’m afraid I’m not going to be a very big man; still, the title ought to carry a certain amount of influence with it. Anyhow, Lord Chancellors and people of that kind would be pretty sure to receive me civilly if I went and looked them up, eh?” I thought it quite likely that the Lord Chancellor would be civil to the Duke of Hurstbourne, and it seemed hardly worth while to explain that I was not eligible for a county-court judgeship. Few indeed are the appointments which in these democratic days can be bestowed, without questions asked, upon the nomi- nee of a duke, even though that duke should be, as Hurstbourne was, the head of one of the old and formerly powerful Whig families, and I had common- sense enough to be aware that, if I was ever to earn. my own bread and butter, I should have to do so by my own exertions. However, I did not wish to distress my kind-hearted little would-be benefactor by throwing doubts upon his ability to help me, and when we parted, he clapped me on the shoulder (he had to stand on tip- toe to do it), saying cheerily— Eomichooks (E(@)