His Grace — page 93: what you’re looking at

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

HIS GRACE. 87 It really did seem as if we ought to be able to ac. complish that triumph, considering how universally un- popular our opponent was ; yet, as the decisive moment drew near, it became increasingly evident that the struggle was going to be a close one. Promises of sup- port we did receive in large numbers; but those who were most competent to gauge the true sentiments of the voters expressed a good deal of doubt as to whether all those promises would be fulfilled. Mr. Gascoigne, besides being a very powerful man by reason_of his wealth and his position in the county, was a fairly fluent speaker ; he appeared to have convinced many of the electors that his views were those held by the late Duke; not a few of them were persuaded that such a candidate as Mr. Somers would not, in the late Duke’s time, have had the countenance of the Castle ; and as the fight was not, strictly speaking, a party one, there was, we were told, a probability of numerous abstentions. Towards the end of the time our exertions grew in- defatigable, and Hurstbourne, who was in high spirits and sanguine of success, vowed that, whatever hap- pened, a vote of thanks would be due to Nora. “ Your sister has gone about winning hearts and votes for us like a regular trump, Martyn,” said he. ‘She is worth a dozen of a lazy old philosopher like you—at least, at an election time.” She is, I am sure, worth more than a dozen of me at any time, and she certainly threw herself into this fray with a vigor beyond the capacity of so lukewarm a politician as myself. All the same, I don’t think that the political question can have had much to do with her enthusiasm ; for she confessed to me, when nobody ¢om (9) I00KS (E(e) im