Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 338: what you’re looking at

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

a oe ELLEN PERCY; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF AN ACTRESS, 325 figure which I had seen, or fancied that I badd | While Beda was giving me these explanations, seen, in the library, and which had appeared to} I had some trouble to compose my countenance have passed out of the glass door leading into the | sufficiently to prevent her from suspecting that back garden. something strange was passing in my mind: but “Mrs. Ravenscliffe, the wretched mother, gave|I confess that I inwardly shuddered as I thus way to the wildest grief,’ continued Beda: “but | heard how the shade of Captain Cautley was re- she recovered her self-possession by the time the | ported to haunt the premises, enveloped in a cloak, Coroner’s Inquest was held. In answer to a ques- | and how the apparition had been principally seen tion which was put to her with all befitting deli- | in the neighbourhood of that glass door leading cacy, she positively denied that her daughter had | from the library into the garden. Could it be become a mother: but she proclaimed it was the | possible that the report was indeed founded in truth that Arabella had been most cruelly trifled | fact?—and that I had beheld the apparition ? with and disappointed by Edmund Cautley in re- | Was it not singular that before a single syllable of spect to her heart’s tenderest affections. Mrs. | this tale had reached my ears, I should have seen Ravenscliffe further said that on the day when | something which appeared to give its superstitious Cautley had left the house after the interview at | part so terrible a confirmation —how could I have which all three were present, he had been solemnly | imagined the figure of a man muffled in a cloak, adjured at that interview to fulfil his promise to | and disappearing at that very door which was so Arabella—but that his replies were evasive, that | intimately connected with the circumstances of the his heartlessness was therefore apparent, and that | legend? It was strange !—it was remarkable !— after some angry words he quitted the place. | and again must I confess that I shuddered in- Then whether it were that Arabella herself had | wardly as I thought of it: but I resolved to place privately communicated with him and appointed | a seal upon my lips, so that I should not add to a last meeting, or whether it were that he himself | whatsoever sentiment of alarm there might already had sought such an interview, could not be deter- | be in the mind of Beda. mined and was left to conjecture. Little however “ Continue,” I said; “if there be anything did it matter how the actual facts of the case | more to relate.” might veritably be: it was only too evident that| ‘ Yes, my dear Miss,” resumed Beda; “ there Cautley had perished by the hand of Arabella, | is indeed something more to relate—and it cor- and that she had put a period to her own exist- | responds frightfully No! I will not speak in ence. A suitable verdict was accordingly returned | this manner!—I mean to say that it really does -——the bodies were interred in the village church- | seem to give a sort of corroboration to one of the yard—but the rites of Christian burial were not | circumstances of last night. But you shall hear afforded to the remains of Arabella Ravens- | and judge for yourself,’ she somewhat briefly eja- eliffe.” culated. “Squire Tremaine continued in an in- “This is indeed a most dismal tragedy, my dear | valid state for some few years after the tragic in- Beda,” I observed. “ But perhaps you have more | cidents which I have been relating; and at length, to tell me?” in compliance with his repeated demands and eu- “ Immediately after the inquest,” proceeded my | treaties, Mrs. Ravenscliffe consented to return to the faithful dependant, “ Mrs. Ravenscliffe left Tre- | Hall to superintend the household affairs, But not maine Hall; and the Squire was thus abandoned | long had she been here when she was seized with to the care of menials. The report soon began to | a grievous illness which smote her as if all of a spread that the apparitions of the deceased had | sudden; and in her delirium she raved of frightful been seen about the premises: no one would enter | things. Ina word, my dear Miss, it would have this chamber, which acquired the reputation of | appeared from what she thus unconsciously said, being haunted; and that gardener to whom I | that she had perjured herself when before the have already alluded, declared that as he was one | coroner: but it was certainly in some sense ex. evening passing along the gravel walk communi- | cusable, for @ parent is naturally anxious to cating with the back door leading from the library, | screen the honour of a child, whether living or he beheld the figure of Edmund Cautley which | dead. Yes—it would seem, from the wild delirious sped rapidly past him, and enveloped in acloak | exclamations of the unhappy woman, that her just as he was on that night when the same man | daughter had become a mother at the time when saw him stealthily entering the mansion, And | the fact was suspected. And what is more, dear since then it has been said that the ghost of Cap- | Miss what is more i tain Cautley has frequently made his appearance Here Beda paused, and looked up into my coun- —but only in two spots: either in the neighbour- | tenance with her large dark eyes so full of a strange hood of that back door leading into the garden, | mysterious significancy, that I felt convinced it or else at this haunted chamber. Aud rumour must be something fearfully striking indeed which likewise declares that the apparition is always | could thus move one whose mind was naturally so that of a man muffled in a cloak, so that the coun- | strong, whose intelligence was so clear, and whose ' tenance is not visible, hastening on at a quick | soul was so intrepid. gliding pace, and disappearing the very instant it| ‘ Speak, my dear girl,” I said: “ it is useless to reaches the door leading from the library into the | keep anything from my knowledge.” garden, or else the door of this room, Then, She glanced toWards the cupboard in the fur- in reference to the unfortunate Arabella, it is said | thest corner of the room: she pointed with her that her spirit wears precisely the same appearance | beautifully-shaped hand in that direction ; and she as on that night of murder and of suicide, when | said in a low deep voice, “ It was there—there, she was clad in the white muslin wrapper as if she | dear Miss—beneath those boards—according to had purposely assumed a garb that should most! the revelation made by the wretched Mrs. Ravens- _ Closely resemble the apparel of the grave!” | Cliffe in her delirium—it was there that the corpse me ee OQ”? as OOo | ee Oe ECORNICLOO© SS (EO)