His Grace — page 59: what you’re looking at

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

HIS GRACE. 53 dences around us. It is difficult to believe that this is really the same old Hurstbourne Castle which my uncle and I used to regard as the dreariest of our abodes.” I said that the credit of having arranged the floral display which he admired was due, I believed, to the head-gardener, and I added, that my duties were not of the nature alluded to. “No? That is almost a pity, I think; for if the entertaining department is to be confided to Lady Charles, I am afraid we shall not always have such cause to congratulate ourselves as we have to-night. There she is, and we must make the best of her; but who her friends are, and what sort of people she will invite to stay in the house, one shrinks from conjecturing. She appears to be a worthy kind of woman in her way, though. Has she got Arthur completely under her thumb, do you think?” | I replied that I really didn’t know, but that a man of Hurstbourne’s age is usually assumed to be out of lead- ing strings. “ Oh, but that is a very unwarrantable assumption,” he rejoined, laughing. “ Arthur, I should say, would always be in leading-strings, and I was rather in hopes that you held them. I suppose he wouldn’t listen to good advice from me; but he stands sorely in need of good advice from somebody, I assure you. He is try- ing, you see, to make a pint-pot hold a quart, which is an experiment that has never yet been crowned with success, often as it has been attempted. He may hold on for a year or two if he doesn’t bet ; but of course he will bet. I am sorry for it—especially as it won’t be in my power to help him by buying this estate, which is entailed—but, guos Deus vult perdere y Gomichoo cS (E(0)