His Grace — page 128: what you’re looking at

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

122 HIS GRACE. would not in itself have been distasteful to me. Only, as sympathetic readers will readily realize, I could not, under all the circumstances, precisely relish the pros- pect of looking on at his philanderings with Miss St. George. I am not gifted with that remarkable insight into the thoughts of my fellow-creatures which is boldly claimed by such a number of people in these days, so that I really don’t know whether Hurstbourne set forth with the intention of conquering Miss St. George’s affections, or only with that of making his cousin jealous ; but cer- tainly, when we arrived at our destination, his behavior was of a kind to lend support to either hypothesis. We found a great crowd in the dining-room at Lavenham and met with a cordial reception from everybody, in- cluding our host, who was very nicely got up in boots and breeches, but had wisely abstained from donning a pink coat. “ Delighted to see you, Arthur,” said he. “I hope we shall be able to show you some sport, but, as you know, that is more the keeper’s affair than mine. All I can say is that I gave strict orders upon the subject as soon as I succeeded to the property.” “Any man,” observed Colonel Corbin, who chanced to be standing near, “can have both foxes and pheas- ants if he likes, and any keeper that I ever heard of will kill foxes, if he dares. It’s a mere question of whether he has been told that he is to interpret strict orders strictly or not.” ; Colonel Corbin, it was plain, entertained no sanguine anticipations and did not think it worth while to conceal his sentiments : but as lawn-meets are usually attended by plenty of sportsmen to whom sport is a matter of Eomichoo cS (E(@) m