His Grace — page 77: what you’re looking at

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

HIS GRACE. 71 had horses to ride (for Hurstbourne, doubting my willingness to make myself at home, had despatched special instructions to the stud-groom upon the sub- ject), and we had congenial society. By that I mean that we had each other’s society ; but we were likewise favored by the friendly visits and invitations of the neighbors, who showed us much kindness and did not seem to think there was anything extraordinary in the circumstance of my sister’s being domiciled in the Castle with me, though I have since been assured that they must have thought it very odd indeed. If so, I can only say that they disguised their sentiments with singular skill and success. It is, I should think, most unlikely that I shall ever again be as happy and as free from care.as I was that autumn, when I ought by rights to have been full of care and anxiety about the future. It was then that I composed the greater part of those poetical works to which I have made allusion above, and I was not ashamed to read them to my companion, who, on her side, affirmed without a blush that they were more spirited and stirring than any compositions of the kind that had previously come under her notice. Idiotic as it may have been of me to swallow even a grain of such flattery, I did swallow it and liked it; but I can honestly say that I did not derive half as much pleasure from that as I did from the daily evidences of return- ing gayety and good spirits with which Nora gladdened my heart. I remember her saying to me, as we rode homewards one evening, while the sun was sinking in the west behind a gorgeous bank of ruddy and golden clouds, that she now knew for the first time in her life what it was to be absolutely contented. Eomichoo cS (E(0)