Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 283: what you’re looking at

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| 270 appeared as if I were having recourse to entreaty, and that therefore I was weak in my own purpose , and incapable of carrying out the threats which I | proclaimed. But he also knows me: and he is aware that when I am determined Hush! he returns, Miss Perey! MRetreat—retreat !” And it was as Zarah had said: for scarcely had I time to draw back into my hiding-place and pull the door ajar again, when the opposite door opened from the landing, and St. Clair reappeared. “T do not choose to part from you in anger, Zarah,” he said, advancing towards her; “and moreover it struck meas I was hastening down the stairs, that there is a way of. settling this matter to your satisfaction. You have qualified yourself to occupy a new position in the world :— what if I were to settle upon you a handsome in- come—say a thousand a year——vwould you not be content ?” -“Tf you were to lay all your fortune at my feet,’ replied Zarah, “ without offering me your hand at the same time, I should repudiate it. My mind is thoroughly made up. And now one word more—and only one word! ‘To-morrow morning, at eleven o’clock, I expect you to be here, with a special license, and with a minister to join our hands in marriage. If. you fail me—and if when the hour of noon is proclaimed by the time-piece on that mantel, you are still absent—I shall go straight hence to a magistrate; and without pity or remorse a “Enough, Zarah!” ssid St. Clair in a voice which seemed to be of a dying tone: “it shall be so! To-morrow at eleven o’clock I will be here, prepared to make you my wife.” Having thus spoken, St. Clair quitted the room; aud in a few moments the front door of the house was heard to close. This noise was followed almost immediately by the sounds of his cabriolet dashing along the street; and then I came forth from my hiding-place. “1 told you that I should conquer—and I have succeeded!” exclaimed Zarahb, her countenance radiant with triumph, “Now, my dear Miss Percy, you have learned the secret of my life. I became that man’s victim: I erred—I fell—and as he was the author of my ruin, so now shall he lift me up as high as he bas plunged me down low!” * But, Zarah,” I asked, almost shuddering as I thought of her alliance with such a fearful being as I considered that St. Clair was,—“do you in- deed love him ?” ‘Yes, I love him, Miss Percy, in spite of all his wickedness—in spite of all his crimes!” and it was with a strange hardihood, even bordering upon fierceness, that she made this avowal. “I have read enough to know that love is an eccentric passion and assumes strange phases. Mine is singular; and to you its aspect may even be revolting. Still it exists not the less within me. If he should learn to love me—as he once told me that he did —I shall continue to love him, and I will devote myself heart and soul to his welfare. But if he should scorn the wife who has forced herself upon him, and treat me with contumely and neglect— then will my love become hatred: but I shall be sufficiently avenged in the knowledge that I have forced him to espouse me. And now you compre- hend, Miss Perey, all that has been mysterious in my past conduct. When you were made a pri- ELLEN PERCY; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF AN ACTRESS, ° soner at my grandmother’s cottage, it was tren through no feeling of friendship that I accom. plished your release: it was because I loved 8t. Clair, and was jealous! If I furnished you with the means of striking terror into his soul by speak- ing of the white rose, it was because I was anxi- ous to provide you with a weapon of defence that might thereafter serve you in any emergency brought about by his machinations. The same | motive led me to release you from the farm-house; and then, when I saw how perseveringly St. Clair was following up his insane passion for you, it struck me that there was something more than mere beauty which so dazzled him. I reflected within myself that if I were well-mannered and accomplished, I should perhaps never have lost his love, and he would not have dared to look upon me as the rejected mistress whose agency he could employ in his machinations to ensnare another. It was then therefore that I resolved to enter upon a new phase of my existence. I craved your suc- cour—your advice—your counsel;—and I craved not in vain. I then learnt to regard you asa friend and to love you. Finally I was resolved to have no secrets from you; and therefore are you here this evening. Rest assured that St. Clair will adhere to his pledge: he will’come to-morrow to espouse me; and whatever his subsequent con- duct may be, I shall at all events watch over your interests and zealously guard you against the effects of any future intrigues on his part,” I listened with the deepest attention to all that Zarah thus said; and after some few minutes’ meditation, I observed in a warning tone, “ Be- ware of this man. He has promised you a certain thing: but may he not have given the pledge in order the more completely to throw you off your guard, and devise some project during the few hours between this moment and eleven in the fore- noon to-morrow—a project which may terribly avenge himself for all that you have said and purposed this evening ?” ; “Be not afraid on my account, my dear Miss Perey,” said Zarab, with a tone and look of com- pletest confidence. “I myself entertain no appre- hension. Yet sincerely do I thank you for all the kind interest you are displaying on my bes half.” After a little more conversation I took leave of Zarah ; and éntering a cab, ordered the driver to conduct me to Hunter Street. During the ride I reviewed everything which had taken place; and while on the one hand I was astonished at the energy, the perseverance, and the firmness which had characterized Zarah’s entire conduct, from the very first day she commenced her studies until the final moment when she extorted an assent from St. Clair’s lips—yet on the other hand I continued to entertain the apprehension that St. Clair would not yield irrevocably without at least one desperate effort to emancipate himself from such thraldom. Indeed, I knew him too well to suppose that he would resign himself to such a destiny and accept such a fate, without a struggle to avoid it. In the first instance he had seduced Zarah from the path of virtue: he had then thrown her off; and his own estimate of the mere passing amour might be judged from the fact that he had sought to avail himself of the services of that very cast- off mistress to keep guard, jointly with ber grand. COnnicloool< Gom