The Young Duchess; or, Memoirs of a Lady of Quality — page 264: what you’re looking at

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

250 “A handwriting may be well imitated,” re- joined Casey senior. ‘' You told my son that Sir Abel Kingston was the drawer of the bill on which this acceptance is supposed to figure. Of course you are aware, Mr. Pluckley, that for- gery was Sir Abel’s forte—it was for forgery he was arrested y ‘‘ T know it,” interjected Mr. Pluckley: “ but still I hold my ground. Your son was intimate with Sir Abel—they dined together—I may add they dissipated together “But it is so unlike Sylvester to do such a foolish action !” “t Nevertheless, I am afraid that he “ads done it,” interrupted Pluckley : : “and you, ta dear sir, must suffer for it.” “You persist in, your intention,” deriailded Casey, “of presenting that bill to-morrow ?” ‘J shall present it to-morrow at your house in Hatton Garden, Mr, Casey.” . “And if it be not paid ?” said the usurer sig- nificantly. “Mr. Pluckley shrugged his shoulders, saying “In that case the matter will go into the han g of my lawyer. “But here,” said Mr. Casey, “is my son, who will repeat to you what he said yesterday, that he never accepted the pill—that he himself had no pecuniary, dealings with the late Sir Abel King- ston—and that, he né¢ t only pledges his word as a gentleman to that effect, but is also ready to con- firm it upon. oath.” “Indeed ?” said Mr. Pluckley, now looking as if he were somewhat, staggered ; “this cer tainly grows seiious :"—and furning half round in his chair, he suryeyed Sylvester as well as the dim- ness of the two candles would permit him. “Tt’s all right, my dear sir,” said the young man, aftectedly hassing his hand through his horrid red hair; “I wouldn’t deceive you for all the world. Trath before all things :—that’s my principle. Why, dam? me, my dear sir, I wouldn’t stake my oe for such a trifle. Go and ask such men as the Duke of Ardleigh, and Captain Cauliflower, and Mr. Tiffany, and such men as them, what they think of me. They know that Sylvester Casey’s word's his bond, and that if he once wrote his name across a slip of paper he'd never deny it.” “Mr. Sylvester Casey,” said Pluckley, with a very serious expression of countenance, “ you are prepared to swear that you, did not, ive your acceptance to a bill of a thousand pounds on be- half of Sir Abel Kingston?” “Oh, yes—I’ll swear that in a jiffey,” claimed Sylvester. Mr. Pluckley looked for a moment as if he were somewhat disgusted at the flippant manner in which young Casey was dealing with the question; and then deliberately opening f writing. desk, he produced a document, which, he held before, the young man’s eyes, saying, “ Here is the bill. Look well at that writing—pause—reflect—answer not hurriedly—but consider whether you ever wrote that acceptance ?” ‘“‘T was drunk if I did,” exclaimed Sylvester. ““No,” resumed Pluckley, still with solemn look and speech; ‘‘ this is not the writing of a drunken man. Ifever you wrote that acceptance at all, it was when you were perfectly sober and in the full possession of your faculties.” THE YOUNG DUCHESS ; jo OR, MEMOIRS OF A LADY OF QUALITY. “Well then,” “JT can swear——” “Stop a minute!” interrupted Pluckley. “I do not want law—I only want what is right. If you really did not accept the bill, I shall not attempt to enforce payment. I will abide by this issue” “That is speaking like a sensible man,” said Mr. Casey senior, with an inward chuckle of deep rejoined Sylvester, y; A regular trump,” added Sylvester. “This,” said Mr. Pluckley, taking from a side table a book with a well-worn dingy cover, ‘‘is the Bible. I know that I have no right to ad- minister an oath: but on the other hand you are under no compulsion to take it. I repeat I put the matter upon this issue. Swear upon the sacred volume that the acceptance to the bill is not your’ s, and there is at once an end of the matter.” a A. ment Sylvester seemed to recoil from the ordea sf hus submitted to him. . Flippant, un- principled, and reckless though he were, yet he was not so thoroughly and inveterately wicked as to be enabled to contemplate perjury without emotion. But he suddenly encountered his father’s ooks, fixed severely and threateningly upon him: i accordingly plucked up his courage, and taking e book in his hand, he said with his accustomed levity, “ Why, of course, I will swear to the thing that’s, true.” ‘Then swear,” replied Mr. Pluckley, “and kiss the book at the same time. Call upon heaven to strike you dead if you are giving utterance to a | falsehood.” Again did a sensation of terror come over the young man in the presence of a ceremony which had something solemnly awful in it: but again did he recover his presence of mind as he met his father’s looks riyeted upon him; and he was about to raise the sacred volume to his lips and repeat the words which had just been dictated to him, when a ghastly spectacle burst upon his vision. For there, in the looking-glass opposite to which he was seated, appeared a form clothed in white —a spectral apparition in a winding- sheet !—yet was the countenance instantaneously recognised—the countenance of Sir Abel Kingston! The figure raised its right hand in a threatening manner, and then it instantaneously disappeared. ‘Good heavens! what is the matter with ‘you ?” cried Pluckley, springing forward, and thus placing himself in front of the young man at the instant the spectacle was vanishing from his view, so that Sylvester could not altogether tell ' the manner of its disappearance. “Confound him! what ails him ?” muttered his father, who having had his back turned towards the mirror, beheld naught of the scene which we have been describing. Sylvester was ghastly pale: his eyes were staring as if about to burst forth from their sockets: utter horror and consternation were upon him—and vainly did he gasp for the power of utterance when Pluckley and his father hastened towards him. ‘What is it, young man?” asked Pluckley in a tone of solemn adjuration. ‘“‘ Sylvester !” and as his father thus spoke his name in his ear, he clutched him tightly by the arm to recall hin to himself and remind him ef the part that he had to perform. PoP PEnNenpwngenennson YN Wn) COMO Colin