His Grace — page 186: what you’re looking at

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

180 HIS GRACE. stand ; but he was not amenable to the dictates of reason and common sense. Afterwards he told me confiden- tially that it was a sheer waste of breath to talk to him about reducing his establishment and selling his thoroughbreds, at that particular juncture. For various reasons, the thing couldn’t be done just then without an immense pecuniary sacrifice ; added to which, every- body would laugh at him if he were to show the white feather so soon after having made a bold start. “And even if I didn’t mind being laughed at by everybody else, I couldn’t stand being laughed at by Paul Gas- coigne. Doyou see?” I saw; and I said I was very sorry to see that he was such an unspeakable ass; whereat he burst out laughing. In replying to some further observations and questions of mine, he informed me that Miss St. George was in London with her aunt and that he met her pretty frequently. “It would do you good to watch Paul’s sour face when I dance with her,” said he. ‘ Paul can do one or two things; he’s a tolerably good speaker, I believe, and of course, with all his money, he can give his friends a first-class dinner. But he can’t dance, and Miss St. George can.” I doubted whether it would make me much happier to look on at the spectacle alluded to; but, such as it was, I was privileged to witness it that evening, when Hurstbourne and Lady Charles kindly insisted upon dragging me to a ball at which Lady Deverell and her niece were also present. Hurstbourne’s attentions to the latter lady were so marked that everybody noticed them! I suppose he must have intended them to be noticed. As for Mr. Gascoigne, he certainly did look Eomichboo “S (E(@)