Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 340: what you’re looking at

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

rrr i er a nn ELLEN PERCY ; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF AN ACTRESS, 327 I proceeded to tell her how both Beda and my- self had fancied that we heard sounds like the rattling of bones, either in the cupboard or else in its immediate vicinage. Miss Tremaine listened with looks that gradually expressed a feeling of dread, while her countenance became paler. “If you had been alone there,” she said, “I should have attributed it to the imagination: but you and Beda together-———” “Oh! that we heard the sounds, I have not the slightest doubt!” I said; “ but that they are to be accounted for in more ways than one, is equally certain. Now I beseech you not to say a syllable on the subject. Ah!” I ejaculated, “there is Miss Barron close by! Do you think she over- heard what we were saying?” “No,” returned Charlotte: “you see she has her back towards us—she is contemplating her two pupils Emilia and Lavinia, of whom she is so excessively fond. If she had heard us discoursing on this subject, she would have doubtless at once Jeined us ; because in the natural goodness of her isposition she would be more than ever inclined to associate her entreaties with mine, to the effect that you will not occupy that room to- night.” Charlotte and I had withdrawn into a window- recess—the draperies were half-closed over it— and it was one of those curtains which had pre- vented us from observing the approach of Sarah Barron in that direction. She was not half-a- dozen yards from us when I so suddenly perceived her on happening to thrust aside the folds of the drapery. But as she did not turn to join us, I concluded, with Charlotte Tremaine, that she had not overheard what I said. “Not that it would particularly matter if my words had reached her ears,” I said to Charlotte ; “for she would keep the seal of silence upon her lips just as well as yourself. And now not another syllable in reference to the haunted chamber!— for I am determined to pass the nicht there; and in the morning I will tell you how it has fared with me.” While speaking of Charlotte Tremaine, I should perhaps observe that sie did not once make the slightest allusion to Ludovico Marano: there was in her general demeanour a certain serenity and tranquillity which proved that she had resigned herself courageously to the fate of a disappointed love, and that if on the one hand she felt that her affections had received a shock, yet that on the other hand there was consolation to be derived from the thought that she had escaped an alliance with one who was not worthy of her love. As for Sarah Barron, I had not as yet found an oppor- tunity of being with her alone—or rather, I should say that circumstances had not once thrown us alone together; and thus I had no means of judging what she knew in reference to the picture her brother had sent me, and which I had returned to him. The gentlemen presently rejoined the ladies in the drawing-room: but as we had all been up so very late on the preceding night, there was a general disposition to seek an indemnification by retiring early on this occasion; and therefore, at about eleven o'clock, the company began to dis- perse to their respective chambers; and again was it while the words “Good night,” were being a. LO RE — -- — a 2 re ee = Sl i eg iE uttered in every direction and doors were closing all over the house, that I glided towards the haunted chamber. CHAPTER OXXI. SECOND NIGHT IN THE HAUNTED CHAMBER, I FounD Beda in the apartment : the wax tapers were lighted—a cheerful fire was blazing in the grate—and, as I have before observed, the appear- ance of the apartment was the very reverse of me- lancholy or gloomy. “Now, my dear Beda,” I said, “wo will sleep together in the bed in this room—we will shut the dressing-room door, so that no sound may reach us from the skylight—for the wind is moaning some- what without, and it may have a peculiar noise when penetrating from above. We will lock the chamber door, as we did last night rs “T cannot think how it was,” interrupted Beda, “but I am really very much afraid that to my negligence it is to be attributed oe “Negligence, my dear girl?” I ejaculated. “No! it isimpossible! You were never guilty of negligence! But of what are you thus so fool- ishly endeavouring to prove yourself culpable 2” “ T cannot conceive what I have done with the key of the door,” answered Beda. “Do you mean this door ?’—and I pointed to the one communicating with the dressing-room, “No, dear Miss: that key, as you may perceive, is in the lock: but the other one—that door open- ing on the landing” “Ah!” L ejaculated; “is the key gone? How is this ?” “ That is the very point Tam at a loss to clear up,” returned Beda. “ After you left the room at dinner-time, I made sure that I locked the door— and I am almost convinced that I hung the key on the nail in the corner of the landing, according to custom. At least all this was my impression : but perhaps it was a very erroneous one, and I may not have locked the door at all, but I may have taken the key in my hand and left it down in the servants’ hall.” | “Why should you surmise that you did this ?” I inguired. “ When I came up at about nine o’clock to look to the fire,’ continued Beda, “ L could not find the key upon the nail: but on trying the door, I found that it was unlocked, I have been ever since bewildering myself as to how this could be. I have searched everywhere for the key—but in vain: I have asked the domestics if they have noticed a stray key lying about: but no!” “ Now, my dear Beda,” I said, “ do not trouble yourself any more upon the point ; for to me if is all perfectly intelligible.” “Indeed, dear Miss ?” she ejaculated, how ?” “ When we separated at dinner-time, we were both more or less pensive and thoughtful—our minds were abstracted. It was natural enough— and in such a mental state the ideas get confused and the memory fails to register incidents with its usual accuracy. Therefore was it that on leaving this chamber, you fancied you locked the door and “ And (C (©