Joseph Wilmot, or, The Memoirs of a Man-Servant — page 45: what you’re looking at

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

emeee WD Og er 32 JOSEPH WILMOT; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A MAN-SERVANT. -_- - that fair young creature of fifteen thus speaking | became cold to the innermost confines of my with the woe-experiences of a woman’s mind—thus | being. giving way likewise to an almost frenzied state “Go up to your mother!” he suddenly exclaimed of affliction. I said all I could to comfort andj in his harshest voice, and turning his diabolic look console her: I felt that I loved her dearly—Oh! | upon his angelic daughter: “go up to your mother, so dearly, I would have caught her in my arms|I say—and don’t be gossipping here! Be off— and strained her to my breast as if she were a! quick—obey me!”—and the wretched humpback sister. | stamped his foot with rage. “But I must not make you as unhappy as| Annabel had only paused to gather up her work: myself,” she suddenly observed: and again exer- | but her hands trembled so that she let it fall twice; cising the strongest power over her feelings, she] and this trifling delay of a few brief instants grew calm. “ Let us talk for a few minutes, | appeared to goad her unnatural father to very Joseph, upon something else, before I go up-stairs | madness. She hurried out of the room; and Mr. to my dear mother again. When you have been! Lanover banged the door violently behind her. walking out, have you never happened to meet | © And so you have been complaining—have you any one whom you knew at Delmar Manor ?”— | —to my daughter, that I won’t let you go to the and I saw that she put this question, not with | Manor ?”—and as he thus spoke he walked straight any particular motive, but merely for the purpose up to me with a reptile-glare vibrating in his of giving the conversation a sudden turn. | deep-set eyes. “Now don’t attempt to deny it: I * No—never,” I answered. _overheard everything that has passed between “And will they not think,” she continued,| Annabel and you. The minx—the hussy—the “that it is unkind on your part never to call and | little wretch—she dared to talk of domestic matters inguire after the health of the family? Have you! and to upbraid me behind my back! But I will not told me how good Miss Edith was towards | serve her out for it—that I will!” and the hump- you—how both Mr. and Mrs. Mulgrave expe- | back’s hideous countenance expressed a malignity rienced such sympathy in your hehalf—and how | truly fiend-like. a'l the domestics were so kind ?” i shrank back so terrified that I felt as if he “Tt is all true, Annabel,” I answered: “but I} were about to murder me. dare not do that which my heart prompts. Tlong “Yes—I overheard all the whimpering, and to know how poor Miss Edith is is erying, and the nonsense that has heen going on,” “And you dare not go thither and inquire ?”| he continued. “ But no matter. I shall know interrupted Annabel, gazing upon me in amaze-| what to do. Willing her by inches indeed !”—and ment. ‘Or is the distance ' the humpback gave vent to that low, jarring, sar- * Distance? Ohno!” T exclaimed. “ Were it | donically chuckling laugh which was so terrible to ten times as great, I would cheerfully proceed on | hear: but all of a sudden ceasing that hideous foot to testify my gratitude for the kindness I ex- | sound, and assuming a serious expression of coun- perienced at Delmar Manor :’’—then lowering my | tenance, he said in a milder manner, “ What was voice to a cautious whisper, I added, “ My unele— | it that you were telling Annabel at the moment I your father—has forbidden me to go near that | entered? How did you know anything about the house, or even to speak to Mr. and Mrs. Mulgrave, | way in which Mr. Delmar left his property? Not should I happen to meet them.” that it matters to me: but I don’t choose you Again did Annabel gaze upon me with amaze-| to go chattering about other people’s concerns, ment: but she saw by my look that I was indeed ; Come—speak out—don’t stand hesitating there! NE ee speaking nothing but the truth. How did you know, I say, that Mr. Delmar made * Poor Miss Delmar!” she said, in a compassion- | any such disposal of his property ?” ating tone, touchingly soft and meltingly pathetic : “T do know, uncle,” was my answer, “ that the “from all you have told me of that young lady, I | unfortunate gentleman made his will in favour of feel deeply interested in her. Perhaps she may | his two daughters equally.” not have survived the dreadful shock: but if she| “Well, but how did you know it?” demanded have, I sincerely wish her as much happiness as|the humpback: “for I don’t suppose that Mr. under circumstances she may possibly know in | Delmar was likely to make a confidant of a boy this world.” | like you—and that boy his page too at the time! “So far as wealth can contribute to the fulfil- | Come, speak out?’ ment of your amiable wish,’ I answered, “she; I saw that a tempest of rage was on the point possesses that element of worldly felicity: for I of bursting forth again: for the humpback had happen to know that Mr. Delmar left his pro- | stamped his foot as he spoke ;—and therefore, in perty in equal shares between his two daugh- | order to avert the menaced storm, I candidly ex- ters———’ | plained how I had been rendered an unwilling At this moment the door opened with such | hearer of the conversation which took place be- abruptness — almost indeed with violence—that | tween Mr. Delmar and Mr. Mulgrave when I was both Annabel and I started from our seats. Mr. | engaged in the museum. The humpback listened Lanover entered the room; and the aspect of his | without interrupting me; and when I had done countenance was but little caleulated to tranquillize | speaking, he appeared to reflect for a few moments : our alarms. I cannot describe the horrid look that | then he suddenly exclaimed, “ And don’t you think he wore at the moment: his face was very pale—| you were a pretty sneaking pitiful scoundrel to he seemed as if he himself had been frightened—or | stay in that place and overhear a private conversa- else that he was a prey to a convulsing rage, to a... your master and his son-in-law ?” which however he did not immediately give vent. have already explained to you, uncle,” was He stood for a few moments gazing upon me with ponse, “how I became an unwilling lis- that dreadful look of his,—so that I shuddered and =| Se a LEE NO Te ea OO AE ON EI a ee ic ei COMmicaoolks com