His Grace — page 270: what you’re looking at

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

264 HIS GRACE. not come into the room before I had quite made up my mind. On discovering that I was not alone, he looked slightly taken aback, but at once regained his self- possession and chattered away for the next quarter of an hour upon all sorts of subjects with an assumption of cheerful carelessness which I could not sufficiently admire. Nora did not behave quite so well. She was embarrassed and showed that she was embarrassed ; she answered him at random; she demonstrated to him as plainly as could be that she was wondering when he meant to go away; and, as he displayed no sign of re- sponding to her tacit invitation, she herself rose at last, with the somewhat uncivil remark that we could resume our interrupted colloquy another day. “Are you walking home, Miss Martyn?” asked Hurstbourne, getting up atthe same moment. “ I'll walk round with you, if you don’t object, and see you safely over the crossings,” She did object; but her objections were disregarded and her assertion that there are no crossings worth speaking of between Berkeley Square and upper Grosvenor Street was met with a counter-assertion to the effect that Berkeley Square is just about the most dangerous place in London to traverse without an efficient escort. Nobody, so Hurstbourne declared, is run over in Piccadilly or Cheapside, where there are refuges and vigilant policemen; but a tradesman’s cart or a hansomcab, rattling down Hay Hill with a loose rein, is the very thing of all others that is most likely to bring about the death of the unwary pedes- trian. They were still arguing when they departed. Looking out of the window presently, I saw them walk- Eomichoo <S (E(0) m