His Grace — page 53: what you’re looking at

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

HIS GRACE. 47 that day and the next. There were two Cabinet Ministers among them, and a host of lords and ladies, some of whose names were familiar to me, while others, as I learnt from him, were stars of the first magnitude in that system which revolves round a royal sun. ‘““!’m going to make a sort of house-warming busi- ness of it, don’t you know,” said he. ‘One is bound to have a house-warming, eh? Anyhow my mother thinks so, and her idea is to give a big dinner to the neighbors, followed by a ball. She has found out that there’s no ballroom at Lavenham ; so we ought to score one there.” This sounded very feminine, and, whatever Hurst- bourne may be, heis not a feminine person ; but who doesn’t know the disastrous effects of feminine influence upon the best men? I tis, in fact, upon the best of men, I think, that such influence proves the most deteriorat- ing ; only a downright brute can boast that he is his wife’s master. Lady Charles, it is true, was not Hurstbourne’s wife; but he was such a good fellow that a mother was almost as bad asa wife to him. Sothere was evidently nothing for it but to engage in this contemptible contest, and as soon as we returned to the house I[ had an interview with the housekeeper, who informed me that she had already been in consultation with her lady- ship. Neither then nor at any subsequent time was I brought into collision with her ladyship. Her notions with regard to entertaining were somewhat magnificent ; but then it was quite right, and indeed inevitable, that if Hurstbourne was to entertain at all, he should do so in a magnificent style. There was money enough to meet current expenses, there was plenty of wine in the. com ’ a \ EHDoOOo cS (Elo) im