His Grace — page 243: what you’re looking at

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

fIl1S GRACE. 237 bourne would swallow the scraps rather than allow that experiment to be tried); so that the only question for reasonable men to consider was what was to be done next. Mr. Gascoigne wanted to send for the police; but by dint of physical and moral suasion I induced him to relinquish so hasty and ill-advised a plan. I pointed out to him that the evidence upon which he had relied no longer existed, that if he were to give his cousin and me into custody upon a charge of having assaulted and robbed him, he would have extreme diff- culty in substantiating his accusation, and that he would assuredly be compelled to reveal certain things over which it would be infinitely better, in the interests of everybody concerned, to draw a veil. “ Admitting,” I continued, “that you have some ground for complaint of the manner in which you have been dealt with, the fact still remains that you did your best to intimidate us. And no man who is worth his salt will submit to intimidation. Now, won’t you sit down and talk matters over quietly and dispassionately like a sensible being? It doesn’t seem to me at all impossible that some compromise may be agreed upon.” After some further parley, he grew calmer, and ad- mitted that, since we had taken care to be two to one, we were for the time being in a position to dictate our own terms. He must, however, reserve complete liberty of future action to himself. If we spoke of compromise all he could say was that the cowardly and dishonor- able act which had just been perpetrated would cer- tainly not induce him to consent to any compromise which should include the possibility of a marriage be- tween Miss St. George and one of his assailants. ‘‘T made the mistake,” he remarked, ‘ of supposing Eomichboo (9) gS (El)