The Young Duchess; or, Memoirs of a Lady of Quality — page 259: what you’re looking at

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

THE YOUNG DUCHESS; OR, MEMOIRS OF A LADY OF QTZALITY. IT subsequently strove to gather my recollections, I may have fallen into error with regard to your look and manner when you ejaculated the name of Mildred. Oh! do you remember my poor father’s excitement—the haggard and ghastly expression of his countenance as he sank down upon a chair ” “Let me hope, dear Princess,” interrupted Ethel, “that he .did not afterwards chide you when you explained to him—as of course you must haye done—how you had for so many years managed to keep secret possession of that portrait?” “Oh, no, Ethel !—my father was incapable of chiding me for such athing! He is too just and generous, and too kind! Oh, chide me?—no! And when you were gone he made me sit down upon that ottoman at his feet, and tell him how the portrait had originally come into my posses- sion, and with what emotions I had been wont to contemplate it; and he asked me-all I had ever heard whispered round me in reference to my mother. And as I went on telling him candidly and truly all that he sought to know, the tears trickled down his cheeks; and, Oh! I wept bitterly, Ethel; for I could not bear to see my dear father weep—he who has always so much command over himself!” “And what did he do with the portrait?” inquired Ethel, whose curiosity was deeply in- terested on this point. “At first,” replied the Princess, ‘* my father said he would keep it, but that I should enjoy the privilege of seeing it whenever I thought fit. But then I suppose that he beheld so sudden a shade of sadness come over my countenance, and saw that my heart was so ready to burst with affliction, that he took compassion on me, and he bade me keep the portrait which I cherished so tenderly. And then I was so glad, Ethel!—and I embraced my dear father a thousand times, thanking him for his kindness- -He charged me to keep the existence of that portrait a secret, as I had hitherto done; and therefore I am as careful as ever in preventing it from falling under the eyes of Count or Countess Olonetz.” Here we may conclude this chapter, leaving Ethel Trevor comfortably installed in her new home, and felicitously comparing her present pros- pects with the mode of life which she had led during her short sojourn at Hendon Court. —— CHAPTER XLVIII. THE BILL OF EXCHANGE. By the side of a bed in which her father lay sleeping, at the house in Hatton Garden, sat Selina. The medicine bottles upon the toilet- table might have served as a hint that Mr. Casey was an invalid; and it only required a slight glance at his countenance to confirm the surmise. The natural sallowness of his complexion mingled with a ghastly pallor: the hard lines upon his brow, and about the eyes and lips, seemed to be more deeply indented than ever. This was the fourth day since he had been seized with illness,— the fourth day since he had been stricken down iv 245 his study by the discovery of the loss of the papers. And this day of which we are now speak- ing, was the 31st of May—the one on which the bridal was fixed to take place,—the one whereon he had hoped to behold his daughter Selina enter into the bosom of one of the finest old patrician families in the kingdom ! But the usurer was now sleeping in unconsciousness that the day had arrived and was passing without the slightest prospect of his hopes being realized ; for after a long interval of feverish wakefulness, he had sunk off into slumber under the influence of a strong opiate which his medical attendant had deemed it necessary to administer ;—and this sleep had already lasted several hours. Selina sat by the side.of the couch, with her eyes fixed upon her father’s face. Her own coun- tenance was very pale: she sat perfectly mo- tionless—her features were rigid, save ever and anon the quivering of the lips which trembled as if under the influence of some strong emotion that was agitating within. It was past one o’clock in the afternoon, when Mr. Casey slowly opened his eyes and began to look about him with the vacant air of one who could not altogether collect his thoughts nor com- prehend why he was there, nor remember, what had happened. ‘* My. dear father, how do you feel now ? Oh, tell me how you feel?”—and Selina spoke in the softest and kindest tone—indeed with an affec- tionate earnestness so deep that if he had been the best and most estimable of fathers, his condition could not possibly have excited a more loving in- terest on the part of his daughter. “Ts it a dream, Selina ?—a dream ?”—and the usurer pressed his disengaged hand to his brow. ‘““ No, no!” he exclaimed, with a sudden sound that was not exactly the cry, nor yet the howl of a. wild beast, but something between the two; ‘it is not adream! I recollect it all! What news —what news, Selina? You are silent, girl? Ah! then, am I to understand that the —the— deeds ‘“* Compose yourself, dear father—-compose your- self, for God’s -sake !” said Selina, in a low but appealing voice. ‘““Compose myself?” he fiercely ejaculated. ‘* Malediction! perdition !’—and then still more terrible imprecations burst from bis lips. “My God!” murmured Selina, clasping her hands, frightened and dismayed. ‘“‘ How long have I slept?” suddenly demanded her father: then, without waiting for a reply, he snatched up his watch, which lay upon a table by the side of his bed; and on seeing what the time was, he cried out with rage and anguish, ‘‘ Near two o’clock !—and this is the day! What has been done ?” “ What would you have had done, dear father,” asked Selina softly and imploringly, ‘* while you are stretched here upon a bed of sickness ?” ‘What would I have done?” he savagely ex- claimed: “I would have had the bridal take place! Has anybody been from the Trent- hams ?” “Lord Trentham has sent to inquire after ou ” ‘Who told him that I was ill?” demanded Casey sharply. ‘How could he help knowing it, dear father, oO COMO err ey tp pL | Colin