His Grace — page 95: what you’re looking at

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

HIS GRACE. ete the same, notwithstanding my protestations. I hope it is not necessary for me to add that our example was not followed by the two remaining members of the - quartette ; but I daresay three of us were really very thankful for our deliverance. Lady Charles, I believe, liked company and derived enjoyment from rubbing shoulders with distinguished persons. But if we were inclined to be a trifle uproarious, now that we were once more left to ourselves and could speak before we thought, instead of thinking before we spoke, a very effectual damper was in store for our too exuberant spirits. We all stayed at home on the polling-day: we had been advised to do so, and we recognized the wisdom of the advice ; for, after all, it does not become a duke, and his immediate circle to descend from the serene heights on which they dwell into the turmoil of a con- tested election. But of course arrangements had been made for acquainting us with the result at the earliest possible moment, and very sad were the tidings con- veyed to us by a:'mounted messenger. Anybody can account for a victory— it is to be accounted for by the straightforward and satisfactory assumption that the majority of the electors are intelligent men—but when one is called upon to explain away a defeat, a rather larger supply of ingenuity has to be brought into play. For the next few days I made a careful study of the London newspapers, and I gathered, after perusing many leading-articles, that the return of Mr. Gascoigne by a majority of over 800 was chiefly due to the ill- advised interference of the young Duke of Hurstbourne. No constituency—so these learned scribes appeared to have discovered—likes being dictated to; no honest Englishman is apt to be predisposed in favor of a Radical Gomichooks l = \ (E(0) m —)