His Grace — page 90: what you’re looking at

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

84 HIS GRACE. Late one afternoon, when we were drinking five o’clock tea in the library, the rival candidate surprised us by calling. He followed his name into the room, looking bland and amiable and, I daresay, not more supercilious than he could help. He had come, he said, to show there was no ill feeling, though I cannot answer for it that those were his exact words. He shook hands with everybody and sat down and had some tea; he evidently did not think that the course which he had adopted in standing for the division against a gentleman who had the ostensible support of his own party called for any apology from him. “In cases of this kind,” he remarked composedly, while he munched a slice of bread and butter, ‘‘ one can but hope that the best man will win, and by the best man one naturally means one’s own man, It is a mat- ter of very little consequence to me personally whether I take my seat in the present Parliament or not; but, situated as I am, I felt that all this bother must be ac- cepted as one of my duties.” “T hope you don’t find it a very irksome duty,” said Hurstbourne rather grimly. “Oh, not so very. It is a bore to have to shout out commonplaces from a platform, but not more of a bore for me than it is for you and your friends. I have the great advantage, you see, of knowing exactly what I mean and saying it.” This challenge was promptly taken up by one of the eminent personages present, who said that, for his part, he knew very well what he meant and that he would be interested in hearing the precise meaning of Mr. Gascoigne’s apparent desire to stir up discord in the Unionist camp. However, I don’t think he ob- Gomichboo cS (E(@)