Joseph Wilmot, or, The Memoirs of a Man-Servant — page 159: what you’re looking at

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

146 JOSEPH WILMOT; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A MAN-SERVANT. a cease to be an inmate of the house, and that during the integval she should not once re-appear in her father’s presence. _ Violet was by no means sorry thus to escape from the sphere of the paternal tyranny; and Mrs. Lanover lost no time in finding a school for her. It was a part of Mr. Lanover’s stipulations that the seminary to be thus selected should be at a distance from London; and one at Southampton was accordingly fixed upon. Thither Violet was removed; but whem her father sternly refused to see her ere she took her departure, her separation from her mother and sister was deeply affecting. When she was gone, Mr. Lanover told his wife and Annabel that her name must never again be mentioned in his hearmg—that he had sworn to discard her—and that his vow should be kept, with the single reserve that he would furnish his wife with the requisite sum for the girl’s maintenance at school. While thus proclaiming his intentions, he worked himself up into one of those fits of un- governable rage which rendered him so terrible a man; and with fearful imprecations swore that if his wife or Annabel ever dared to breathe the name of Violet without those walls—if they ever spoke of her to a third party—if they ever men- tioned to any new acquaintance they might form, that there was such a being imexistence—he would visit them with all the power of his displeasure. Such conduct on his part was @ complete illus- tration of the man’s hatefully vindictive cha- racter. This event, which caused the removal of Violet from the paternal home, touk place in the early part of the year 1836; and it was in September of that same year—consequently some seven or eight months later, that I became an inmate of Mr. Lanover’s house on my abrupt removal from Del- mar Manor. During the six weeks I remained in Great Russell Street, the name of Violet was never mentioned by Mrs, Lanover or Annabel—at. least not in my hearing, No doubt, when the mother and daughter were alone together, the tyrant’s stern injunctions were disregarded; and trem- blingly and whisperingly they spoke of the absent one, mingling their tears at the thought of her being thus away from them. But there were more reasons than one wherefore, in my presence, all allusion to Violet was carefully avoided. In the first place there was the dread of its coming to Mr. Lanover’s ears that they disobeyed a com- mand which he had uttered in so terrible a manner : in the second place there was the painfulness of speaking of one whose absence was so much de- plored; and in the third place there was a very natural unwillingness to give me any farther proof, beyond what my own actual experience taught me, of Mr. Lanover’s fiend-like disposition. The mother ana Annabel could not possibly have spoken of Violet without giving me some explanation of her absence; and they would moreover have been compelled to conjure me to keep the secret in- violable,—all of which would have been most pain- ful, most humihating, and most distressing to the minds of that amiable lady and her sweet- tempered daughter. Thus was it that during the six weeks of my sojourn beneath Mr. Lanover’s roof, the name of Violet was never breathed in my hearing ; and I remained in total ignorance of such @ being’s existence. I now come to the circumstances of that me- | morable night when, by Annabel’s intervention and at her instigation, I fled from a dwelling where a terrific peril seemed suddenly to menace me. The reader will remember that I was made a pri- soner In my own room, and that I heard Annabel steal forth from her chamber after the usual hour for retiring. It seems that from some words which her father had inadvertently let drop, in the shape of a threat relative to myself, she had been seized with a fearful suspicion that mischief was intended me: so that when a man was admitted into the house under somewhat mysterious Circumstances, she formed the courageous but dangerous resolve of stealing down and listening at the door of the room where the interview took place between her father and that individual. They were speaking in a very subdued tone, but in an earnest manner ; and she could only catch a few broken sentences. She however heard enough te convince her that Mr. Lanover and his vile accomplice resolved upon making away with me. She learnt, too, that the wretch’s name was Taddy; and from what she had previously heard me say of him, she knew that I regarded him with an immense loathing and horror, if not as a mortal enemy. The state of mind into which that young creature—then but little past fifteen—was thrown, by hearing her own father thus deliberately plotting and planning the most enormous of crimes, may be conceived but cannot be explained. No doubt the blood ran cold in her veins: no doubt she was for a space transfixed with direst horror at the door of that room. But she saw how desperate was my posi- tion; and a fortitude of which she had scarcely believed herself capable, came to her aid. She stole away from the vicinage of the room where murder was thus being resolved upon: she went straight to her mother’s chamber; and to her did she reveal the sickening, harrowing, horrible tale. Mrs. Lanover could scarcely believe her ears: but yet she knew that Annabel was incapable of de- ceiving her; and mustering up all her own for- titude—thereby following her admirable daughter’s example—she resolved that at any personal risk to themselves, I should be saved. But how? My clothes had been taken away by Mr. Lanover: my reoom-door was locked—and the key had likewise remained in his keeping. In respect to the gar- ments, a plan was promptly hit upon,—it being determined that female raiment should be fur- nished to enable me to effect my flight. The great difficulty was therefore in respect to the key. Suddenly Annabel recollected that before the ars rival of Taddy, her father had been drinking wine in the front parlour: it was just possible that he might have left the key on the mantel or the table there. Again she stole down stairs; and her joy may be conceived when she found the object of her search upon the table. She returned to her mother,—stealing up the stairs like a spirit, and trembling with the cruellest terror lest her move- ments should be overheard in the room below. Mrs. Lanover then gave Annabel a sum of money wherewith to present me; and being herself too ill to leave her couch and take any active part in the matter, she was compelled to trust the manage- ment of the proceeding to her daughter. I need not recapitulate the incidents which followed, as the reader is aware how my escape was effected. After Annabel had seen me safe from the house she stole back to her mother’s chamber. There Uo a ee ea CORNICLOO@ <S