The Young Duchess; or, Memoirs of a Lady of Quality — page 308: what you’re looking at

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

29-4 ““Good God, that he should say this! that he should think it!’—and the young Duchess again clasped her hands as if in utter despair. Mandeville folded his arms across his chest, and said in a cold tone, ‘‘ Will you tell me, Mary, on your part to let Comedy succeed so soon upon Tragedy. Come, come! let there be an end to this ludicrous acting! Think you not that I can make all allowances, goaded as you were almost to desperation? Yes—by heaven! from the very bottom of my heart I pity you!” “Oh, Hippolyte!” cried the Duchess, wringing her hands as she spoke, “it was because you did pity me that you had recourse to such a desperate measure in order to save me altogether! But, Oh! believe me, I have not proved ungrateful ! I Have curbed my feelings, and by a stupendous effort kept down all my emotions when I heard accusing tongues throw their imputation against my poor mother-in-law! Yes—although it has cut me to the very quick to echo the dreadful charges, yet have I done so; and I have even permitted her very children to be informed that all circumstantial evidence pointed to their poor mother as the authoress of the deed! Now you will give me credit for some degree of gratitude on account of all you have done forme? But the ordeal through which I am passing, is not yet half ended. Presently I shall be ‘constrained to look my husband in the face and tell him that his mother is—is—my God! how can I breathe the hideous word?—a murderess! And then I shall have to place a seal upon my lips, and stifle my feelings even to the very verge of suffocation, when the Coroner's Jury pronounces the decision to which the evidence, as it now stands, must lead them. And then—Oh! then”—and the young Duchess shuddered visibly as she pursued the terrible theme—‘there will be the most hideous phase of this ordeal! I mean that I shall be compelled to look on and still to keep the seal of silence upon my lips, while my poor mother-in-law is being borne away to gaol!” Mandeville listened to this speech with a coun- tenance that would have been inscrutable were it not that once or twice there was a slight play of a mocking smile npon his lips; and he retained his arms crossed the whole time over his chest. He was about to speak as the young Duchess left off; but she made a quick impatient gesture to silence him, and she resumed as follows :— “‘There is something that I dread, Hippolyte —something from which my soul regoils in hor- ror! It is lest you should be discovered !” “On my soul, Mary!” ejaculated Mandeville, with a sudden start: ‘this is too strong !” ‘“‘Ah! listen to me! for heaven’s sake, listen!” interjected the young Duchess; “ and be not too overweeningly confident! Oh! it is for your good that I speak !—it is that no possible precaution should be neglected—but that in case of emer- gency you should be prepared for flight———” “ Flight ?” exclaimed Mandeville indignantly. “ By heaven ‘Yes—flight for you !” said the ‘young Duchess; “but shame—degradation — perhaps suicide for me! Do not interrupt me!—I will tell you where the danger lies) My mother-in-law must evidently have seen the deed committed—or else she has got a certain impression so strong upon foot impatiently. you have to say———” how long this farce is to last? It is scarcely well | Count. ‘me last night in your bed-chamber to be enabled _to recognise me again.” thither ‘that I might not return until very late. porter promised to sit up for me. Ah, by the bye, ‘I spoke of the starlit beauty of the night as a THE YOUNG DUCHESS; OR, MEMOIRS OF A LADY OF QUALITY, her mind, that if in a lucid interval she should be enabled io make certain statements “* Well, well!”—and Mandeville stamped his “Tet me hear first all that “My mother-in-law ejaculates ‘The ghost, the ghost did it!’” pursued the young Duchess. ‘Oh, if she should recognise you !” « One word will suffice, Mary !” interrupted the “Your mother-in-law saw too little of ‘But in her own chamber!” ejaculated our heroine ‘‘ when—when—you must have stolen in ‘A truce to this acting!” cried Mandeville. “© T was never there at all—and you know it! ‘Listen to me! I insist upon being heard! I have given you a patient hearing—you shall give. me one. I drove my phaeton down to Beacons- field last evening: I brought no servant with me —for I would not afford any clue to my intended movements. Beaconsfield. Isaid that I was going out to sup- per at a farm-house in the neighbourhood, and The motive for. walking to my destination and back, as the clock was striking midnight. It was about a quarter-past eleven when I parted from you— and you will admit that it required a walk of at least three-quarters of an hour to take me to Bea- consfield. This morning I left the hotel at eight o'clock and returned’ to ‘London. ” Mandeville paused for a few moments, during which the young Duchess surveyed him with a ‘singular expression of countenance, half incredu- lous, half compassionate. ‘“ Now, Mary,” resumed Mandeville, ‘‘ the mo- ment is come when all ridiculous acting and by- play must cease between us.’ “Oh, yes!” cried the Duchess, “ let it be so! let it be so!” ‘It shall be so—and therefore, Mary, you may admit to me that, as I ere now said, goaded to desperation—dreading everything at the hands of Mrs. Quinlan—you had recourse to those fatal means sa ‘“‘Knough, enough, Hippolyte !” interrupted the Duchess, with a species of frantic impatience : “vou will drive me mad! Remember that when I spoke to you of the manner in which the villain Abel Kingston had been disposed of, and when I shuddered lest his blood should have been spilt, you declared that you could even have done that for my sake!” ‘‘And it was so, Mary,” replied Mandeville. “ And if I had done this deed, I should not hesi- tate to avow it.” The young Duchess pressed her hand to her brow as if to steady her reeling brain; and then she abruptly said, “If you did not strike the blow, who did ?” ‘‘ Mary, between us there need be no secrets !” ‘As I have a soul to be saved,” rejoined the young Duchess solemnly, as she looked the Count with steady frankness in the face,—“ as I believe in God, and tremble at his power to punish me if I engaged rooms at the hotel at. instead of taking the phaeton. But instead of being. late after all, 1 was at the hotel again precisely ~ COMO YN Wn) Colin