His Grace — page 23: what you’re looking at

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

HIS GRACE. 17 deuce of a hurry now; but I’ve got something to say to you, and I'll say it this evening, if you’ll come. Are you disengaged ?”’ I was disengaged and perhaps not disinclined to con- fide my woes to a sympathetic listener; so when— about twenty minutes after the appointed hour—he arrived at the very smart and modern club which he had named, he found me waiting for him there. He did not apologize for being late; but he apologized pres- ently for the dinner and the wine, neither of which stood in need of any apology, and then he proceeded to apologize also for a proposal which he wished to make to me. | “T daresay,” he began, in deprecating accents, “it isn’t exactly what you would choose; but it’s better than nothing, and it needn’t be permanent, unless you like. The fact is that I have been talking to some of these big-wigs, and they all assure me that they can’t do anything for a solicitor. Barristers, they say, they might be able to help; but I expect that’s only because I wasn’t asking them to help a barrister. Well, to cut a long story short, what I want you to do, if you will, is to manage my establishment and my expenditure for me. It’s very evident to me that somebody must do it, or I shall soon get things into a rare mess. There’s a land-steward and a house- steward and a lot of other rascals; but unless they have a gentleman over them, to keep them up to their bearings, they'll rob me right and left; and as soon as I realized this I made so bold as to think of you, Martyn. I really don’t believe you would find it such a bad berth. You would live at Hurstbourne and have your own rooms—as many of ’em as you wanted 2 Gomicboo Ss (Elo)