His Grace — page 256: what you’re looking at

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

250 HIS GRACE. “You were under a false impression, then. That girl has no more heart than a stone! It was she who enlightened me about your sister and the old woman’s designs. She did it at the ball, and I was much obliged to her for opening my eyes. Oh, they’re a nice lot, these women !” “Tt has always been my conviction that the vices of the sex are in excess of its virtues,”’ I remarked. “With one exception, eh? Well, I grant you the one exception. Perhaps, if it wasn’t asking too much of you, you might consent to throw my mother in; but I won’t insist upon it. Poor old mother; this will be a sad blow for her!”’ “The discovery that you have lost all esteem for her sex in general and for Miss St. George in particular ?” ‘No; don’t laugh—there’s nothing to laugh at. I mean the discovery that we are eternally disgraced. Perhaps it won’t be a discovery, though—who knows? We shall have to hide our heads somewhere or other abroad, I suppose. Well, we should have had to go into exile any way, for I’m about broke. All the same, I didn’t make such a bad fight for it when I was driven into the last ditch, did I?” I could not quite bring myself to commend his method of fighting; but it seemed rather absurd to have fought so hard only inorder to runaway. I com- forted him to the best of my ability, pointing out that, with a little courage and a good deal of economy, his affairs still admitted of re-establishment upon a solid basis, and recommending him, if he did decide to leave the country, to do so only by way of preparing himself and his associates for the inevitable change which would have to take place in his manner of living after Eomichboo cS (E(@)