His Grace — page 250: what you’re looking at

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

244 HIS GRACE. Like the majority of her sex, Lady Deverell was puzzled and angered by anything approaching irony. She stared and frowned and then snorted out, ‘ Oh, . you don’t even pretend to be a gentleman, then? ” ‘“‘ How should I, my dear lady, when you have taken such pains to demonstrate to me that my father ought by rights to have spent the best years of his life in a convict prison? You shouldn’t destroy a man’s self- respect if you want to keep him nice and scrupulous. You will be shocked to hear that I am not in the very slightest degree ashamed of my conduct. Martyn, as you may see by his face, is a good deal ashamed of having held your friend down while I destroyed your valuable property; but Martyn’s father was a respect- able man, I daresay, and he himself is about as respect- able as they make them. Naturally, he blushes, and naturally, I don’t. At all events, there’s an end and a finish to your precious letter, and now what are you going to do next?” “T am surprised at your asking,” Tady Deverell declared ; “‘it stands to reason that I shall—well, that I shall expose you.” “Does it? I should have thought that you could hardly expose me without exposing yourself. The threats of exposure would have been all very well, if it had happened to be effectual; but the reality—isn’t that rather a different thing? I’m afraid some of your friends will be disrespectful enough to smile when you unfold your tragic tale, and that others will listen to it with a spice of incredulity. It may be true, they will think that you were jilted ages ago by a man who knew that you had it in your power to blast his reputation at any moment; but it isn’t over and above likely to be EGOMmMIcbooks (E(O) m