His Grace — page 115: what you’re looking at

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

fILlS GRACE. 109 sense of his responsibilities to give up his life to sport, as his cousin does. ‘Though, to be sure, I understand that when the present Duke of Hurstbourne is not engaged in sport, he is usually even worse employed.” At that moment the present Duke of Hurstbourne rode up and joined us, thereby, perhaps, preserving a friend of his from speaking unadvisedly with her lips. He greeted his cousin pleasantly—Hurstbourne can’t help being pleasant, except wheh he means to be down- right rude—he was introduced to Lady Deverell, who bowed in a very distant and stately fashion, and I noticed that Miss St. George’s languid eyes brightened a little as she acknowledged his salutation. How queer it is that the stupidest and most unobservant people ‘sometimes discover, by a sort of inspiration, things which have not even happened yet, but which are cer- tainly going to happen. I know it is so, because I can speak from personal experience; but I cannot account for the fact, nor have I the slightest idea why I was persuaded, before Miss St. George had ex- changed a dozen words with Hurstbourne, that she intended to set her cap at him. I overheard all, or nearly all, that they said to one another ; nothing could have been more innocent or more dull. It was a good job, he remarked, that that beastly frost had gone at last; she assented, and, in reply to a question of his, confessed that she was fond of riding. She added that she did sometimes hunt, but that she had not put on her riding-habit that day, because it had not been sug- gested to her that she should do so, and because she had been given to understand that Mr. Gascoigne was not a hunting man. “More’s the pity,” observed Hurstbourne ; where- EComichoo cS (ee) i