Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 359: what you’re looking at

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

346 my post, conducting the affairs of the household acd superintending the education of the children. And no one suspected what had happened !” Sarah Barron paused for a minute or two; and then she continued her narrative in the following manner :— “ But how to dispose of the remains of the in- fant? I had deposited the corpse in the cupboard farthest from the door; and I had taken the key with mee One night I revisited the room, with the intention of fetching the dead infant and burying it somewhere in the garden. But asl stooped down in the cupboard, I noticed that the flooring was loose; and I was struck with certain details of the legend which attaches itself to that apartment. It might have been true, then, after ali (L thought to myself) that Arabella Ravens- cliffe had become the mother of a child which was concealed in that very self-same spot! The idea was horrible—and yet it was suggestive.. I found that the boards could be raised with but little difficulty in that cupboard, for the nails only fitted loosely and could be easily extracted. And thus, my dear Ellen, to be brief, i¢ was there—as you learnt the night before last—that I concealed the dead infant !” There was another pause; and this time tears did trickle forth from the eyes of Sarah Barron. At length she continued :— “ Soon afterwards I was summoned to the Con- tinent, with my two young charges Lavinia and Emilia. I bad previously written to the Vis- count: he sent me a brief answer, pleading the pressure of business for the brevity of his com- munication—but concluding with the wish that I might enjoy all possible happiness; and this was expressed in a way as if it were a farewell he was taking of me. I wept bitterly; but my pride pre- vented me from writing to him again. Time passed on: I need not tell you, Ellen, how there have been moments when in the solitude of my own chamber I have wept bitter burning tears as I thought of my degradation and dishonour; for though the world was ignorant of my secret, yet in my own estimation—just heaven'!—how low had I been brought! Let me however pass over all this. I come back to Tremaine Hall: and what happens? That all of a sudden every- thing connected with the haunted chamber is most vividly brought back to my recollection ! Not that my memory could ever prove faithless,” con- tinued Sarah Barron bitterly, “ to incidents of such a nature: but together with those recollections dread fears were also excited. What do you suppose were my feelings when the day before yesterday you said in the presence of Mrs, Tremaine, Char- lotte, and myself, ‘that there was a little discovery you were desirous of making, and that it referred to the cupboard in the corner farthest from the door 2? Good heavens! what could you mean? This was the question I asked myself. Had any- thing transpired to make you suspect my secret P or did you purpose to investigate that nook through any other impulse ? No! for you assured Charlotte that you had noé¢ learnt the particulars of the legend. I was half maddened—I knew not what to think or what to do. But a few hours later on that same evening I heard some- thing which certainly relieved me from suspense, but which only enhanced my hideous terrors a : ELLEN PERCY; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF AN ACTRESS. hundred-foild. I saw you and Charlotte retire into the window-recess of the drawing-room when we came up from the dining-room; and [I felt con- vinced you would converse together of the haunted chamber. Youdid. I listened—I overheard all that passed. Ob, heaven! how cold the blood ran in my veins when you declared that Beda and yourself had fancied on the preceding night you heard sounds like the rattling of bones either in the cupboard or in its immediate vicinity! Ah, then I comprehended what was the nature of the discovery you had to make! And then too a thousand times more wild and horrible grew the terrors that haunted me:—my guilty conscience enhanced the veriest trifles into the most impor- tant circumstances, just as the microscope mag- nifies hairs into cables. What if you were really to discover bones in that cupboard? There would be an inquiry and an inveéstigation—and anatomi- cal evidence might prove that so far from the bones being those of a child placed there half a century ago in the time of Arabella Ravenscliffe, the date of those infant relics might be ascribed to a period of only four years back! And then methought that circumstances would so combine against me—tittles of evidence unobserved at the time would be remembered, collated, and amassed, to bring home everything unto myself! All these reflections swept maddeningly through my brain ; and L. gave myself up as one lost. I heard you ask Charlotte if she thought that what you had been saying together had reached my ears: I heard her reply that ‘it was by no means probable, as my back was towards you and I was contemplating my two pupils Emilia and Lavinia?’ But I had. overheard every syllable ; and no words can by any possibility describe the effect which your re- vealings to Charlotte Tremaine had produced upon my mind!” “1 can well understand it,” I said, in a compas- sionating tone, and with a look of kindred sym- pathy ; for how was it possible to help pitying the unfortunate young lady P “ Have you ever heard or read, Miss Percy,” proceeded Sarah Barron, “or has it ever occurred to you, that when persons are driven almost to distraction and desperation by the imminence of some tremendous danger, they often have recourse to the most silly, absurd, and puerile means in the hope of warding it off? Yet such is the fact. And now, therefore, you will not be surprised to learn that a similar felly took possession of me in the midst of the mental desperation to which I found myself reduced. In a word, I thought to frighten you and Beda out of the haunted chamber. For this purpose I purloined the key: I knew that there was no bolt or other fastening whereby you could secure the door inside, and I did not pause to reflect whether you might care about the key being missed and ask for it—or whether you would take other precautions, such as by placing chairs or piling furniture against the door. Oh! you may judge how attenuated was my mind—how morbid was its condition, and how ridiculous were my ideas in the midst of their horrible distraction! If I had been calm and rational—if I had only possessed a glimmering of my wonted reason and common sense—I should have known that you, Ellen, were of all persons the least likely to be affrighted or scared by the bare suspicion of a EORNICLOOOKS (E@)