Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 121: what you’re looking at

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

| OO 103 ture on my part towards a correspondence, and that I am displaying an anxiety to be received into the Carshalton family.” * No, my dear Juliet,” I answered; ‘‘ you shall so word your note that it shall be as coldly reserved and as calmly dignified as possible; and it will therefore serve as the best rebuke that could pos- sibly be offered to that young nobleman for his conduct.” Juliet consented: the note was written, and en- trusted to the landlady to be delivered to the Vis- count. Ina few minutes the hostess reappeared, with an intimation to the effect “that his lordship would wait upon the ladies if they gave him per- mission.” I looked at Juliet, who made me a sign to im- ply that I might do exactly as I thought fit in the matter ; and I therefore said to the landlady, “Let Lord Ravenscliffe be introduced.” <; The Viscount quickly made his appearance. He was a few years older than his deceased brother, but not near so prepossessing in his personal ap- pearance. He could not even be called handsome: in figure and height he was insignificant; and his habitual air was that of cold insolent hauteur. There was also a slight tinge of coxcombry in his manner, principally arising from the habit which he had of carrying a quizzing-glass stuck in the socket of his eye; and as perhaps he was really near-sighted, he screwed up that particular eye which had the effect of distorting his countenance for the while into a grimace. Altogether Viscount Ravenscliffe was by no means an interesting per- sonage, so far as outward appearance went; and I had already seen enough of his disposition to have but an indifferent opinion of his heart’s qualities. On entering the room, he bowed slightly to Juliet—but with greater formality, and indeed more respectfully to myself. We both acknow- ledged the salutation with the utmost coldness. Juliet would not speak; and if was therefore I who had to request his lordship to be seated. ‘You are perhaps surprised,” he said, as he took a chair, and thrusting his glass into his eye, began steadily to contemplate Juliet—“ you are perhaps surprised that I should seek a personal interview with you, Miss Norman—” “My lord!” ejaculated Juliet, the rich blood suddenly mantling upon her handsome counte: nance, while she drew up her fine form to its full height: “you have either addressed me by that name through mistake, for which you will of course apologize—or else with a deliberate intention to insult me, for which unmanly act of cruelty I should not envy your feelings.” “Ah! I thought that when actresses had mar- ried noblemen,” said the Viscount, with flippant ins»lence, “and when the husbands died, the widows had the decency to resume their maiden names.” “My lord,” interrupted Juliet, her eyes flashing fire, ‘ 1 see that you have come with the deliberate intention of insulting me!—and I demand that this interview may immediately terminate.” “And I also, my lord,” I interposed, “ desire that you quit the room immediately; for conduct more gross than this which you are displaying, has perhaps never been witnessed. Depart, my lord !—there is the door!” ELLEN PERCY; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF AN ACTRESS, —_ “a couple of actresses giving themselves these airs!” “ Begone!” cried Juliet furiously. “Pacify yourself, my dear friend,” I said; “and you, my lord, remain for a few moments that I may tell you something which it were as well that you should hear. You use the term actresses as ifin taunt: you think that you are humiliating and vilifying us; and even if it were so, your con- duct would be that of the veriest dastard that ever dared insult a woman, but would shrink from the glance of one of his own sex. Well, my lord, we are actresses!—or at least we have been so. But have the actresses in whose presence you now stand, had naught to do with your own family that might at least render you civil and polite? My lord, the life of your own father was saved by me, Ellen Percy—otherwise Miss Trafford, the tragic actress " “But all the memory of that good deed was wiped away,” ejaculated the Viscount, “by your conduct in agsisting your friend Juliet Norman to invelgle my brother into a marriage with her: for of course you did so assist her ” “Silence, insolent person that you are!” ejacu- lated Juliet. ‘Say anything you will to me: but accuse not my friend Ellen, the best and purest- minded of women! And as for your thinking to upbraid us because we have been actresses, let me tell you that the daughter of the proudest peer might envy Ellen’s reputation as that of the greatest tragedian of modern times “And perhaps Miss Norman,” interjected the Viscount, with a mocking laugh, “ considers her- self to have been the most accomplished danseuse after Elssler and Taglioni! But come, we will put an end to all this nonsense. I only came for mere curiosity’s sake—just to see what sort of person my self-styled sister-in-law might be ‘ “ And since you are here,” exclaimed Juliet,— “since for @ purpose so insolently avowed you have sought our presence,—you shall remain to listen to a few words which I have yet to speak. Know then, that in espousing your brother Lord Frederick, I married one who was destitute of all resources: if was upon my own income that he lived—it was in the house which belonged to me that he dwelt! He had not a shilling nor a foot of ground that he could call his own: he was therefore indebted to me for the bread that he ate! It was even my money which he took away with him when he left me upwards of two months back—my money therefore which has maintained him during his residence at the mansion where he has met so terrible a death! Thus you see, my lord, that the aristocrat may be indebted to the actress ——though God knows that not for worlds would I have alluded to these circumstances in reference to the unfortunate deceased, were it not for the purpose of giving an answer to the cowardly malignant taunts which you have flung out !” It was evident that the Viscount winced a little under the infliction of this speech: but still as his object was to humiliate Juliet, and perhaps myself likewise, he returned to the attack. “Ab, well,” he said, with the same insolent flippancy as at first, “the advantage was all your own; for you shone for a little while in the bor- “Ab, ha!” he said, laughing superciliously;| rowed light of aristocracy—and if you had pos- —" a ee a CORNICLOOOKS