Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 157: what you’re looking at

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

Se re ee ee ee ee ow - SS eS eS ES EE ES SE OEE ES SSS CES ee -_—— ee 144 cannot draw the sum out again from the Bank. Good heavens! to what artifices do you have re- recourse that you may cling to this thousand pounds !—how polluted in soul must you be to receive it for a meritricious purpose !—but how in- famous of you not to complete the bargain, al- though it be in reference to the sale of your own person !” The indignant blood rushed to my cheeks ; and stamping my foot with violence upon the carpet, I exclaimed, “ You shall hear me! Listen, then, while I tell the tale which will account for this strange coincidence! I have a cousin—Henry Wakefield by name—who recently quitted Eng: land. At the time he was taking leave of me, he intimated that I should in a little while receive the sum of a thousand pounds from a manufac- turer named Macdonald at Paisley. Conceive therefore what I must have thought when one day a letter was brought to me, and in a blank envelope [ found a bank-note for precisely the very sum [ was expecting 7 “ What! delivered by hand, when you expected it from Paisley ?” cried Sir Hugh sarcastically. “Ah! methought it had been delivered by a friend or relation of Mr. Macdonald. I inquired of my servant for a description of the person who brought it—I was told it was a tall, slender, fair- haired young man = “Yes—my valet,” said Sir Hugh, with quiet irony. ‘ And doubtless your Mr. Macdonald had some relation whom this description of my valet would in every sense suit,—so that whichever way you turned, you could not possibly fail to have a salve for your conscience !” “Oh, how bitter are your words! how cruel, how cutting is this incredulity ! You presuppose a falsehood for every word that issues from my lips! Yet all I say is truth ELLEN PERCY; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF AN ACTRESS. “T will depart!” I exclaimed. “And believe me, Sir Hugh Ward! my reputation shall yet be cleared up!” “You shall not depart!’ he vociferated. have bought you—and you are mine!” He sprang towards me—he threw his arms round my waist—he endeavoured to approach his own lips to mine: but by a desperate effort I dis- engaged myself from his embrace. The front of my dress was however disordered in the struggle; and a couple of letters which I had thrust into my bosom, fell upon the carpet. These were the letters which Beda had brought with her to the theatre, but which I had not then time to read, nor even to glance at, and which until this pre- sent moment [ had forgotten. Baffled and discomfited by the desperate re- sistance I had offered—pale with the rage of dis- appointment—Sir Hugh Ward stood at a little distance : but his natural good feelings triumphed sufficiently over his darker passions to prevent him from immediatety repeating the attempt and having recourse to a more brutal violence than he had already exercised. “Well, go!” he said in a tone of as much dis: gust and contempt asif he were speaking to some loathsome object. “You have been here long enough—too long indeed! I hate and loathe you, base swindler—mean robber—dirty larcenist, that you are!—and rest assured that I will have a signal vengeance !” My spirit was well-nigh broken, although I had os & just proved so successful in repelling the attack made upon me: I felt exhausted by the scene—l had no strength nor power left for further argu- ment or self-vindication. To beat a precipitate retreat and leave all the rest to chance was now my only thought. Stooping down, [ hastily and not the least | snatched up the two letters that lay upon the portion of it is the fact that the personal appear- | carpet: but ah! an ejaculation burst from my lips ance of your valet, as hastily sketched by my maid-servant, corresponded with a certain Alex- ander Graham, the nephew of Mr. Macdonald.” “ And now let me tell you, Miss Percy,” said Sir Hugh Ward, “ that I do not believe a single syllable of this tale of your’s—which has not even the merit of being specious and possessing the air of possibility! But this is the flimsiest and most trumpery contrivance F, “Oh, I will convince you of its truth!” I ex- claimed. “I have written to Mr. Macdonald— doubtless my letter will elicit an answer in a day or two——” as I recognised Mr. Macdonald’s handwriting and beheld the Paisley post-mark. “Oh!” I said, my entire form now vibrating with suspense and joyous hope; “it is perhaps possible that I may be enabled to prove the truth of all my statements !” I tore open the letter ; and the first object that met my eyes, was the printed form of a cheque. I hastened to glance over its contents: it wasa draft upon a London banker, payable to me or my order, for one thousand pounds sterling. A cry of joy thrilled my lips; and then I hastily ran my eyes over the letter which contained the draught. “That will not suffice, Miss Percy,” inter- | The epistle was worded as follows:— rupted the Baronet. ‘“ You owe me a debt—and it shall be paid to-night. I am implacable and merciless as Shylock himself. You sought to make me play Falstaff to you as one of the Merry Wives of Windsor: but the whole shall result either in the Taming of a Shrew or Turning the Tables.” It was with bitter irony and fierce resolution that Sir Hugh Ward thus spoke: indeed his whole manner and appearance had undergone a remark- able change within the last quarter of an hour; and whereas at first he was so exceedingly polite and gentlemanly, even in his accusations and re- proaches, he was now curt, bitterly cutting, and even brutal in some of his taunts and inyvec- tives. * Paisley, September 27tbh,1842, “My dear Miss Percy, “ Your letter at first caused moe the utmost as- tonishment, and then inflicted upon me the keenest pain. It astonished me, because it spoke of the safe reception of a bank-note for a thou- sand pounds forwarded by me—whereas alas! no such remittance had been made from my office. But then supervened a sense of the deepest afllic- tion ; for I at last comprehended what your letter meant. It conveyed a severe reproach for my failure to keep the promise which I had made to Henry Wakefield. Oh, Miss Percy! from your hands I must receive everything with sub- mission; for you are my saviour—you have RECO er ee EL Gomichdoo SS (E(O)