His Grace — page 146: what you’re looking at

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

140 HIS GRACE. call it an irreparable—mistake in permitting your friend to provide a home for your sister. As you know, I was strongly opposed to the arrangement; it was per- sisted in, notwithstanding my protests, and since I have been here I have heard more than enough to convince me that exactly what I foresaw has happened. Your sister and the duke have been seen together at all hours of the day, without even so poor a chaperon as Lady Charles Gascoigne to look after them. People have begun to talk; and I leave it to you to judge who is likely to be the chief sufferer from such gossip.” This was not pleasant hearing for me; but I forced out a laugh, and said the sort of thing which, I suppose, men always do say under similar circumstances. We know—or, at any rate, most of us do—that gossip is not a thing which any girl can afford to treat with con- tempt; but we take up high ground when our sisters are attacked, partly because we are infuriated with the malicious women who attack them, and partly because we can’t see any other dignified attitude to adopt. “That is all very fine,” observed Lady Deverell, when I had finished; ‘‘ but you must bear in mind that you are not the only person, nor even the principal person interested in protecting Nora from slander—for I am quite ready to admit that it is probably slander. You owe some account of your actions, and she owes an account of hers, to Mr. Burgess, who would be both grieved and displeased if he were to hear the things that I have heard during the last few days.” “Well, suppose you impart them to him,” I replied, subduing a strong inclination to break faith with Nora by announcing that she no longer owed anything at all to Mr. Burgess. ‘Then he will know the worst, and Eomichboo <S (E(0)