The Young Duchess; or, Memoirs of a Lady of Quality — page 261: 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 QUALITY. “but of course on this head Gramplin could not pronounce an opinion.” “You will go and get a warrant and arrest him at once,” said Casey with a savage sternness in his voice. “Very good—it shall be done if you wish it. Only bear in mind that if such an extreme measure be adopted, you cover the young man with disgrace: and instead of his being a desirable husband for your daughter, he becomes one whom you would spurn and keep ata distance. And pray remember, my dear Mr. Casey, that a violent policy is not always the best. ‘Look at the case of Sir Abel Kingston. If you had taken my advice and arrested him simply for the debt——-” .** He would have gone through the Insolvents’ Court and laughed at me,” interjected the usurer. ‘‘ And as you arrested him for forgery,” rejoined Bulteel, ‘‘he has gone out of the world and baffled you altogether.” ‘‘But in reference to this present business,” said Casey impatiently, ‘I will not be beaten— and I will be revenged! I will carry out my aims——” ‘And this is precisely what I want you to do,” said the lawyer, “and to which end I am bound to render all my assistance. Why not try gentle measures? The Trenthams are still in your power; and I am much mistaken if you could not in a very short time bring them to their senses. What say you? Shall I put in an execution to the tune of eighteen or twenty thousand pounds ? I think I have Lord Trentham’s bonds and bills at my office to that amount ” ““« Yes—twenty thousand pounds exactly,” said the usurer: then after a few moments’ reflection, he added, “ Let it be so: it is the best course. It need make no noise, and can be speedily hushed up if the Trenthams come to their senses.” ““No doubt of it,” said Bulteel; “ for of course, if Launcelot Osborne has really pilfered these deeds, it can only be for the purpose of extricating his family from your clutches and saving himself from being compelled to marry your daughter. ‘Therefore, if what we are now going to do should bring him to book, your aim will be accomplished —he may keep the deeds he has stolen——” “Certainly,” interjected Casey, ‘for I had all along intended—and indeed had undertaken—to give them up as Selina’s dowry.” “ Well then,” added Bulteel, rising from his seat, “it will be as broad as itis long. An exe- cution for twenty thousand pounds is no joke in any aristocratic family—particularly in one that is so near the verge of ruin as the Trenthams.” ‘‘ Besides,” added Casey, ‘‘ you yourself may go with the bailiff to make the seizure, and you can just whisper in the ear of the young scamp Launcelot that there may be such a thing as a criminal prosecution in the background. You may tell him too that affidavits can be made in reference to the lost securities, and then an appli- cation can be addressed to the Court of Chancery to put me in the same position as before ” ‘‘TLeave the whole business to me,” said the lawyer, ‘‘ and I will do the needful. The seizure shall be made this very afternoon at Trentham House.” Mr. Bulteel thereupon took his departure ; and Selina returned to her father’s chamber. Mr. Casey said not a word; but he sat up in bed, and 247 looked very hard and very searchingly in his daughter's face. She could not fail to observe that scrutiny : and she met it with a steadiness of look as if she were sustained by the purity of a soul that was conscious of no evil. “ Selina,” said the usurer, slowly breaking silence, and riveting his regards even still more keenly and searchingly upon his daughter, ‘‘ an- swer me as if you were on your oath before some judge empowered to question you—aye, or as if you were answering unto your Maker !” “Speak, father,” said the young lady, with a cold and steady firmness; “why do you thus solemnly adjure me ?” ‘‘ He who stole the papers from my office,” con- tinued Casey, ‘‘must have had an accomplice in- side these walls. All the circumstances prove it. My own key must have been purloined for the moment—or the pattern of the lock must have been given for the manufacture of another key. And that it was no ordinary robbery is proved by the fact that nothing else was taken ‘« All these things, father,” said Selina quietly, ‘you have argued before, over and over again.” “But I repeat them now,” rejoined the usurer sternly, “because they are to lead to a question which I am about to put to you, and unto which you will reply as solemnly as if you were stand- ing in the presence of your God! None other than Launcelot Osborne——” ‘Again that suspicion, father!—nay, more, that imputation!” interjected Selina indignantly. ‘Will you swear, then, daughter—will you swear,” resumed her father, whose eyes still re- mained riveted upon her,—‘“ will you swear that you were not the accomplice of Launcelot Os- borne in that theft ?” “Father, I swear,” she answered, with un- changing countenance and unflinching look. Still her father’s eyes lingered upon her fora few moments; and then, as if his own hard heart experienced a shock at having suspected his daughter of a deed in regard to which he was now convinced of her innocence, he suddenly suf- fered his whole manner to undergo a change; and sniiling as kindly as such a countenance as his could smile, he patted her cheek, saying, “I be- lieve you, Selina—I believe you. Indeed, I never doubted you. Only—only I thought I had better ask the question. “And now, father, you are convinced?” said - Selina; “and you will not again torture yourself nor degrade me with so dishonouring a sus- picion ?” There was at this moment a knock at the chamber door: Selina hastened to see who was ‘there, and she received a letter from the hand of a maid-servant. It was addressed to her father, who immediately opened it and read the contents, which ran as follow :— st ‘‘ Windmill Street, Haymarket, May 31, 1847. 6 Sir, “Ty beg to inform you that I hold the accept- ance of your son, Mr. Sylvester Casey, for the sum of one thousand pounds. It is dated the 9th of May, at twenty-one days; and therefore with the three days’ grace, it’ will bé due to- morrow. As a matter of course I should have waited to present it for payment in the uswal oO COMO Colin