Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 138: what you’re looking at

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ee ee ee ELLEN PERCY; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF AN ACTRESS. ~ 125 spot thus reached was in the direction exactly contrary to that where the accident to the vehicle had occurred: for the latter was on the Birming- ham side of the cottage—whereas I was now on the Embledon side. Here the gipsy stopped short; and addressed me in the following terms :— “I have now rendered you a service, Miss Perey; and the only favour I need in return, is that you will never suffer it to transpire that you were liberated by me. St. Clair will think that you effected your own escape:—let him remain under that impression. I need scarcely add that for the sake of my grandmother and myself, you will remain equally silent in respect to the treat- ment you experienced at our cottage. The driver of your chaise has recovered; but the vehicle is too much damaged for you to proceed in it. He told me that you are bound to Embledon. Hasten along the road; and in a few minutes you will meet a post-chaise and pair. Hesitate not to stop it, and inquire of the postilion whether he cannot return and take you to your destination? He will tell you that he was hired by a gentleman at Bir- mingham to bring him to that cottage; and in pursuance of the orders given, he is on his way to take him up again, having baited his horses at the nearest way-side public-house. Say boldly at once that you know the gentleman—he is Captain Sé. Clair—and that you have his authority for using the post-chaise. If you manage the matter well you cannot possibly fail of success; and you will save yourself from wandering along this lonely road, on foot, and in the darkness. Here is your packet of necessaries: I brought it with me from the broken chaise:—for from the very first I was resolved in aiding you to escape from the cot- tage.” “ But the driver of that vehicle ?” I interjected : **T must remunerate the poor man 2 “IT have already done so,” answered Zarah. ‘He is perfectly satisfied; and I have moreover given him to understand that you have found another means of conveyance. And now fare- well.” The gipsy did not wait to receive the expressions of my gratitude: but she hurried precipitately away, and was instantaneously lost to my view in the surrounding darkness. With a fervid and exultant joy at my heart did I speed along the road; and in a few minutes I beheld two twinkling lights in the distance. Almost immediately after- wards the sounds of an approaching equipage were wafted to my ear; and the expected post-chaise and pair, with its lamps lighted, came up. I called to the postilion to stop—which he at once did; and I demanded, “ Is this a return chaise P” “No,” he replied—and not very civilly; for it was natural he should think it strange to be thus accosted by a female at such an hour, it being now nine o’clock in the evening.- “TI am sorry for that,” I said: “for I would re- munerate you handsomely ” “ Beg your pardon, ma’am—TI didn’t see at first it was a lady I was talking to. I’ve got to take up a gentleman at a little cottage about half a mile further along the road-———” “What?” I exclaimed, in affected astonish- ment; “a gentleman whom you brought from Bir- mingham x4 “The very same, ma’am,” answered the postilion. al i “ Then I know him well!” I ejaculated: “he is Captain St. Clair.” “To be sure, ma’am! But ” “Oh! he does not want the chaise,” I at once cried: “he purposes to remain where he is. I have his full authority for using it. You must turn and take me to Embledon—and I will give you a guinea for your trouble, besides the ex- penses.” The postilion was completely satisfied: I took my seat in the chaise; and the equipage, being turnea round, bore me in the direction of Em- bledon, Grmencss CHAPTER XXIV. MR CROFT. Dvurzine the drive thither, I reflected upon tho incidents which had occurred to me, as well as upon other circumstances which they recalled to my memory. I could not help thinking that it was from a deeper motive than mere compassion or friendly feeling that the younger gipsy had in- terfered on my behalf—thereby bafiling the diabo- lical design of St. Clair. That St. Clair himself should be in any way connected with those gipsies —that he should have business to transact with them—and that he should travel all the way from London on purpose to visit them, were matters which excited my astonishment. Those same gipsies were likewise acquainted with Lady Lilla Fissendine; and her ladyship had been induced to obey the elder crone’s summons by means similar to those which, at Lady Lilla’s own suggestion, I had adopted to overawe St. Clair. There wasa combination of mysteries in all these things which I could not fathom by any possible conjecture ; and now that I found St. Clair to be connected with those gipsies, I thought more seriously than ever of Lady Lilla’s connexion with them. In- deed, suspicions floated in my mind which were not altogether favourable to her ladyship: I feared that, figuratively speaking, she wore a mask—and that after all she must have been the writer of that fragment of a letter which I had in my pos- session—and consequently that she was the victim of an illicit love for the nephew of her deceased | husband. Though there was something to pain and grieva me in these reflections—for I had liked Lady Lilla, and had received so much kindness at her hands— yet was there a fervid joy in my heart at having escaped from the power of so desperate a villain as St. Clair. I regretted nevertheless that Zarah’s injunctions bound me to the strictest secrecy in respect to the transaction of this particular even- ing : for otherwise I would certainly have invoked the aid of the law to punish him for his infamous conduct, as well as to protect myself in future against his machinations. But I considered my- self to be bound in honour, as well as by the ties of gratitude, to respect those injunctions on the younger gipsy’s part ; and it was now too late to appeal to the magisterial authority in reference to Edwin St. Clair’s former villanous proceedings to- wards me. That he was bent upon effecting my ruin, if he pussessed the power, was only tou evi- CORNICLOOO <S) Com