His Grace — page 91: what you’re looking at

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

HIS GRACE. 8c tained the information for which he asked, although Mr. Gascoigne was courteously and discursively ex- planatory. The latter wound up by declaring that the wishes of the constituency were really his wishes; his sole object was to ascertain what these were, and if, contrary to his expectation, it should be proved to him that the division was a Radical one, he would bow to the expressed will of the majority. “Well, if the verdict of the majority goes against you, you will have to acknowledge. yourself beaten, I suppose, whether you make a bow or not,” remarked Hurstbourne. ‘Not that we are Radicals, but then you know that as well as I do.” “I was under the impression that Mr. Somers had sounded the Radical trumpet and thumped the Radi- cal drum rather loudly,” said Mr. Gascoigne, with a smile. ‘‘ You, of course, are not a Radical—indeed it would be hardly in the nature of things that you should be—so, in the event of my being returned, you will have the consolation of knowing that the Legislature contains one more humble defender of your interests. Either way, I trust and believe that this political con- flict will produce nothing resembling a breach between us.” Hurstbourne, it may be assumed, shared neither that trust nor that belief ; for he only responded by a dubi- ous sort of grunt, and the rest of us grunted in sym- pathy. It is almost impossible to convey by a mere report of his words any idea of how exasperating and offensive Paul Gascoigne was. I daresay that what provoked us beyond all endurance was that, although he had sinned flagrantly against the laws of both poli- tical and social courtesy, he had the air of being quite Eomichoo cS (EC) ve