His Grace — page 24: what you’re looking at

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

18 HIS GRACE. —and there would be horses for you to ride, and of course the shooting. I can’t help thinking that a country-life would suit an athletic fellow like you better than office-work in this filthy town; besides which, you would have the comfort, which I know would be a very real comfort to you, of thinking that you were doing me the greatest possible service. I’ve no head for figures, you see, and my only chance of averting an appalling financial disaster is to commit my affairs to someone whom I can thoroughly trust.” He went into a few details, which certainly seemed to bear out his assertion that he was not very well qualified to take care of himself in a financial sense ; he explained what my duties would be, and I did not think them beyond the range of my capacities; finally he named a salary so preposterously high that I could not in common honesty accept it. But I did, after some hesitation, accept the post offered tome. I knew very well that it was offered to me out of the kindness and generosity of his heart, and that, if I did not take it, the appointment would probably not be filled by anybody else; still, I hope I was not ab- solutely and entirely selfish in the matter. Looking back upon it, I am able to say with a clear conscience that I have been of some service to him and have earnd my pay: even at the moment I might, perhaps, _ have resisted the temptation, powerful as it was, had I not foreseen that he would at least not be a loser by employing me. He was so pleased by my consent to let him relieve me of the cares which had almost broken my heart that he jumped up from his chair to shake hands with me, knocking over a decanter and scandalizing the, prim Gomichboo cS (E(0) m