His Grace — page 51: what you’re looking at

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

HIS GRACE. 45 “TI wish you would,” I replied; “and I know no earthly reason why you shouldn’t.” He shook his head and assured me that there were lots of reasons why such a scheme of existence must be regarded as impracticable in his case. ‘I don’t want to be an absolute cipher,” he explained ; “I don’t think a Duke of Hurstbourne ought to be that. My uncle, to be sure, lived his own life and didn’t bother himself much about politics or society ; but, then, he was so beastly rich that it wasn’t possible to disregard him, and he knew very well that he could make his power felt at any moment, if he chose. It’s rather different with me, you see; I must keep myself pretty promi- nently before the eyes of the world or I shall sink into downright insignificance.” I asserted somewhat hastily that a duke can never be an insignificant personage; but he responded by naming one or two wearers of the strawberry-leaves to whom I had to admit that the adjective applied, and he added that he was not desirous of swelling that in- glorious list. ‘“ My mother,” said he, “saw from the first how it would be; and a sharp fellow like you has most likely discovered already that my mother has a head upon her shoulders.”’ I had been sharp enough to discover that Lady Charles Gascoigne had a singularly foolish head upon her shoulders, but naturally I did not hint at anything so impolite as that. I merely inquired in what partic- ular fashion her ladyship desired that her son should render himself prominent. “Oh, not in one way more than in another,” he an- swered ; “ only she sees what you yourself must have seen yesterday that Paul Gascoigne means to over- cComicboo cS (E(0)