Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 87: what you’re looking at

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-_ Rn es te 74 ELLEN PERCY; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF AN ACTRESS, were then piercing, had lost their fire; and there * And it is all over P” I said, with a sudden ex- was now an incipient stoop in the tall atabure. All | clamation as though I would have prevented it if this was the difference between the age of about | the power to do so still remained. forty and that of nearly fifty: but still the ex-; ‘‘Ah! no wonder, my dear girl, that you were pression of that countenance—Oh! it was the!so painfully affected!” continued Mrs. Norman, same !—the same as I had first seen it in my | who was now herself weeping bitterly. “ You grandfather’s parlour at Leeds—the same as I had | have felt how hard it was to tear yourself away afterwards caught a glimpse of it when looking | from one whom you loved as a sister: but I, my through the window of the chamber of death! dear child, have been compelled to part from & Yes—it was unmistakably the same! But the | daughter voice—Oh! I had not yet thought of that / And | “Yes, yes—it is hard!” I murmured, almost no wonder: for not merely had my senses been | | suffocated with my own sobs: and then I abruptly hitherto locked as it were im stupefaction, but | asked, “ But the clergyman, Mr. Croft?” there was nothing now to startle me with the re- «He too is gone, my dear Ellen,” rejoined Mrs. collection of that voice. For when I had heard it | Norman. “ He is compelled to return by a night- in my grandfather’s parlour nearly eight years | coach, it appears, to the country village of which back—and then again at Mrs. Parks’s residence in | _he has the curacy. London about six years back—it was rough and| “Do you remember the name of it?” I in- coarse; whereas now it flowed with a soft so- | quired. lomnity. | Th, yes !—Embledon,” pe Mrs. Nor- “Oh!” I exclaimed within myself, “it is a de- | man; “and it is situated in Warwickshire. But lusion on my part! Heaven be thanked that it is what made you ask, my dear child?” so !” I had a very great mind at that moment to re- My heart bounded with joy: for infinite was | veal to Mrs. Norman everything that had been the relief it thus for an instant experienced ;—and | oppressing me—the cause of my swoon—and the at that very moment the ring was placed by the | uneasy misgiving which was still floating in my bridegroom on the finger of the bride. Yet only | mind: but a second thought determined me to re- for an instant was this relief on my part: because, |main silent. Whether Mr, Croft and the stranger es I’again looked towards Mr. Croft’s countenance, | were identical, was one thing: but that he was a hurricane of misgivings swept back into my | really a clergyman was another; and as this latter mind. Once more I felt as if 1 must shriek out; | fact seemed to be established beyond doubt, what- and then allin an instant the thought flashed to | soever I might know of the man (if indeed any- me that even if my suspicion were correct, and | thing at all) could not affect the legality of the that the Mr. Croft whom I beheld before Me was| marriage. I consequently made some evasive identical with the stranger of other times, he/| reply to Mrs. Norman’s question; and declaring might be a clergyman after all. Still there was a| that I was now better, I descended to the parlour, hideous mystery enveloping all this; and omen | where ber husband was awaiting us. appeared to accumulate upon omen most inaus- Myr. Norman had himself evidently been weep- piciously for this bridal that was being celebrated. | ing—for he was devotedly attached to his da daugh- Scarcely had this reflection passed through my | ter; and I knew how severe a pang it must have mind, when a particular intonation of the clergy- | cost him to separate from her. We entered a man’s voice caused ‘t to relapse as it were into a| vehicle which was in readiness to receiye us; and roughness from which its hitherto softened flow | returned to London. But little was said during had only been redeemed by an artificial effort; and | the ride; and the house, on our arrival, seemed it seemed to touch a chord that vibrated most | dreary enough without Juliet. painfully through my heart. Again did that dimness come over my vision—again did my thoughts quickly fall into confusion: my strength was ebbing away—consciousness was as it were CHAPTER XV. slipping out of me—and I sank down in a swoon. PAISLEY. When I came back to consciousness, I was lying upon the bed in the chamber where Juliet’s | On the following morning I received a letter from toilet kad been performed; and Mrs. Norman / my cousin Harry. It was brief and hurriedly was bending over me. There was an odour of | written, and conveyed to me a distressing piece of vinegar in the room: I now remembered that I | intelligence. My aunt Mrs. Wakefield had been had fainted; and Mrs. Norman ‘said in a gentle | seized with a sudden illness, which evidently ex- voice, “ The scene was too much for you, my | cited the greatest apprehensions in the mind of her sweet Ellen! Ob, i had such difficulty to recover | affectionate son; and he requested that I would. ou!” hasten to Paisley with all possible despatech—for “Have I beon unconscious very long?” I in-| that such was the earnest prayer of his mother. quired, raising myself with an effort to a sitting | While my cheeks were still wet with the tears posture on the bed. which this letter elicited, 1 proceeded to show it ‘““Yes—for some time,” replied Mrs. Norman. | to Mr. and Mrs. Norman; and the counsel they | Juliet has gone’—here the poor lady vainly en-| gave me was in complete accordance with my own deayoured to stifle a sob—“ but she kissed you fer- | inclination and the tenour of the request contained fently, Ellen—she bade me say everything kind!|in that letter. I was to set off for Paisley at | She was loath to leave you thus Oh! and sho| once; and my preparations for the journey were | wept too—she wept when the last moment came— quickly made. ; bitterly did she weep!” I am not about to dwell upon the details of that rc TT ‘ — ————eeaeae eee ———— eee tn a A: GL RR RELL LL LOL LLL ee ee eee -—-—— —- - —— -CiC- - — — CORNICELOOOLK<SaCOnA -