Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 75: what you’re looking at

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

(pee Sr ee 62 lived ; although I now looked with suspicion upon every statement that I had at any time heard from St. Clair’s lips. Several days passed agreeably enough: for the villa was conveniently situated for the beautiful walks and drives in the neighbourhood. Her ladyship was visited by a few friends, belonging to the patrician grade; and by them was I treated with the utmost kindness and distinction. One day—when I had been about a week at Claremont Villa, as the house was called—an in- cident occurred which troubled me greatly. It was in the forenoon: I had been rambling alone in the garden: but the sultry heat of the sun at length drove me indoors. Lady Lilla was writing at her desk in the parlour which we habitually used. Almost immediately after I thus entered that parlour, she was summoned from the room; and I approached the table to take thence a book which I was in the course of reading. Two or three notes, which Lady Lilla had written, lay upon the very book that I required; and as I re- moved these billets, I was struck by the writing of the addresses. It was the first time I had seen her ladyship’s handwriting; and I experienced a shock more powerful than I can possibly describe : for it struck me all in a moment that it was the very same handwriting as that which I had seen in the fragment of the letter at St, Clair’s house. A dizziness came over my sight, as all the contents of that fragment rushed back to my recollection. Good heavens! was it possible that Lady Lilla herself could have been the victim who had ad- dressed the author of her ruin in language so har- rowing, so horrible, so anguished, so despairing, as that which I had read in the fragment alluded to? Passing my hand across my eyes to dispel the film which had settled upon them, I looked again at the superscriptions of these notes. Yes—it seemed to me the same beautiful handwriting ; though that of the fragment I remembered to have been tremulous, and that of these billets was firm in its feminine delicacy and perfect fluency. I heard footsteps approaching the door; and rapidly retreating to the sofa, I sat down as if I had been all along occupying it since my entrance into the parlour. It was however with the utmost difficulty that I could compose my looks; while, as to my feelings, they were cruelly harrowed and tortured. Lady Lilla began to converse with me; and as I listened to the soft music of her voice, so calm and so collected—as I contemplated her countenance, So surpassingly beautiful—as I thought of her age, which could not exceed two-and-twenty — I said within myself, “Is it possible that this being of transcending loveliness could ever have known such stupendous anguish—such ineffable remorse as the fragment of the letter seemed to indicate P Could she who has the countenance and shape of an angel, have ever penned language denoting the consciousness of crime P” It appeared to me as if I were in the midst of a horrible dream; and availing myself of a pause in the conversation, I rose and issued from the room. Flinging on my large garden-hat, which I had left upon the hall-table, I went forth again into the grounds. It seemed as if I must absolutely court solitude in order to commune with myself : it seemed likewise as if there were something which ELLEN PERCY; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF AN ACTRESS. I ought to do, but which I knew not rightly how to accomplish. Should I speak to Lady Lilla Essendine P—should I tell her of the circumstance of having read the fragment at St. Clair’s house, and beseech her, in the name of the friendship she professed for me, to clear up the horrible mystery which now appeared to hang round herself? Or should I devise some pretext for leaving her abode and rejoining my friends, the Normans? I was bewildered how to act. I did not like to address her ladyship on the subject, for fear lest there should be some terrible mistake on my part: and yet, on the other hand, I felt shocked at the notion of continuing to be the guest and friend of or . who, if my suspicion were well founded, had put upon record such frightful self-accusings. Utterly unable to make up my mind how to act, I wandered into the shrubbery. The back gate stood open; for a gardener was at work on the premises: and I issued forth. A lane skirted the boundary-walk: and along this I slowly proceeded —my soul a prey to the most painful feelings. Was it not natural for me to entertain the suspicion that Lady Lilla Essendine had been rendered the victim of St. Clair’s guile, and that the letter of which I had seen a fragment was written by her under the influence of poignant and excruciating remorse for her infidelity towards the husband who perhaps doted upon herP And yet what if I were after all mistaken P—what if a mere coincidental resemblance between one handwriting and another had deceived meP And amongst ladies of superior education, was there not often a striking identity of styles of penmanship? Oh! if I were labour- ing under an error, how cruel and how unpardon- able an insult would it be to Lady Lilla Essendine to breathe a syllable which savoured of a suspicion or an aspersion! While I was thus reflecting in bewilderment and uncertainty, a turning in the lane suddenly brought me into the presence of two singular- looking women, whom [I at once knew to be of the gipsy race. One was an old crone, with wriukled countenance and bowed form—but with dark eyes that had lost little of their youthful fire, and were peculiarly keen and piercing. Her look was not merely cunning, but had something sinister in if, which was still more repelling when she began smirking and smiling as she caught sight of me. Her companion was a much younger woman—in- deed apparently not more than about four-and- twenty. She possessed a very fine person, and though her features were coarse and large, they were by no means unhandsome. ‘Her feet were naked; and her lower limbs—a considerable por- tion of which the short skirt of her dress left ex- posed—were singularly symmetrical in their ro- bustness. She was stout and upon a large scale, but well-proportioned. Methought that she would have made an admirable model for a sculptor de- lineating with his marble the feminine form in Amazonian proportions. and without the slightest gloss upon it, hung upon her shoulders: her eyes, of deepest blackness, were large and brilliantly lustrous: her lips, which were full even to coarseness, but of the brightest cherry hue, revealed a set of teeth that might be com- pared to ivory. She was leaning against a tree ; and her look was bold and full of hardihood, though by no means insvlent as she gazed upon me. Her hair, dark as jet, ECORNICLOO@ cS Com