His Grace — page 79: what you’re looking at

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

HIS GRACE. | 73 latter, inasmuch as, after all, the nomination-day had not yet been fixed, nor did we even know whether the seat was to be contested or not. It turned out that I was right. Hurstbourne had abandoned all present idea of hunting (a sacrifice made easier for him by the prevalence of north-east winds and hard frost), in order that he might bring that influence to bear upon the coming election from which, I believe, peers of the realm are supposed to abstain ; and he had invited vari- ous eloquent and celebrated personages to come down and assist him. However, it was not until some hours after we had had the privilege of welcoming him and his mother that he alluded to the cause of their sudden descent upon us. They were both of them as kindas possible; they took Nora’s presence quite as a matter of course, mak- ing no fuss about it and treating her not so much like a guest as like one of the family. I had known before- hand that Lady Charles would be kind, only I had feared she would be rather patronizing; but she was not in the least so, and she had not been a quarter of an hour in the house before I saw, to my great satis- faction, that she and my sister were going to be friends ; I don’t think she ever thoroughly liked me—probably she was a little jealous of my power over her son—but she took a fancy to Nora from the first, and she could not have been more considerate and thoughtful and natural with the girl if she had been as well-bred as she was, unhappily, vulgar. As for Hurstbourne, never yet have I met the man or woman with whom he was incapable of becoming intimate at amoment’s notice. Long before dinner was over Nora and he were like brother and sister; they had Gomichoo cS (ee)