The Young Duchess; or, Memoirs of a Lady of Quality — page 385: what you’re looking at

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

THE YOUNG DUCIIESS; OR, MEMOIRS OF A LADY OF QUALITY. ‘**Do not accuse yourself thus, dear father,” she said. ‘I wish there was anything I could do to render you happier than you have of late been— to console you—to prove to you that I am not selfish in respect to my own sorrows—and that if I suffer from the sense of my irreparable calamity, I have lost none of the loving tenderness and de- votion which I owe to you, my sire !” ‘There is something you can do, Pamela,” an- swered Mr. Ponsford; “and it was to speak to you on this subject that I have now sought you. Listen to me, my child! Some years ago—about seventeen or eighteen—at the time when you were 371 ‘“‘Her name is Hester,” was the reply. ‘‘ Alas, poor sister!” said the young lady, with a voice and look of still deeper tenderness: ‘‘ how profoundly I feel for her!” ‘“‘And I am sure, Pamela,” continued her father, ‘that your gentle and kind ministrations will prove beneficial to her. Oh! how delightful would it be if you were to become the means of raising her up from the couch of sickness!—if your attentions, and vigils, and watchings, were to be thus rewarded !” “Oh let me try, dear father!” interrapted Pamela enthusiastically, ‘ You have already an infant in the cradle—I was guilty of an indis- | said more than enough to interest me deeply in cretion—a crime——Alas, that a father should be compelled to blush in the presence of his own daughter !” ‘“‘Then do not tell me anything to make you blush, father!” interjected Pamela, with « look and tone of anguished entreaty. ‘“‘But I must enter upon certain explanations, my child—and you must listen to them; for they constitute a requisite preliminary to the final revelation.” ‘‘ Then rest assured, dear father,” responded the generous-souled Pamela, “in whatever you may be about to confess, you will not be too severely judged by your own loving daughter.” ‘7 was about to tell you, Pamela, that at the period to which I have alluded I was guilty of an indiscretion Yes, I was very wicked—faithless towards your mother — perfidious towards the victim of my criminality! There was one who loved me—she knew not I was married ——Suffer me to spare the details, Pamela i “Yes, father—yes!” and the daughter was much agitated. “ T tell you that I was very guilty, Pamela—and she who loved me became my victim—and—and —a child was born. The transaction was hushed up for more reasons than one—for the sake of the unfortunate and betrayed young creature whom I could not wed—and for my own sake, married as I was to another! But I made ample provision in a pecuniary sense for the maintenance of that offspring; and years elapsed, Pamela—and then I was told that the child was dead—but this day— yes, this day, I have learnt that it is otherwise ! Indeed, within the hour that is now passing, have I been told that she lives—and therefore I have another daughter, Pamela, besides yourself !” ‘‘And I therefore have a sister!” cried the young lady, clasping her hands in a paroxysm of mingled surprise and delight. ‘“'Yes—you have a sister, Pamela—if thus you choose to call her, and if thus you will recognise her, despite the stigma that rests upon her birth.” ‘‘ Heaven forbid that I should be so unjust and cruel,” cried Pamela, ‘as to make that the sub- ject of reproach to her who is guiltless of it! It is sufficient, dear father, that you have told me I have a sister! Oh, and I feel convinced that I shall love her as well as if she sprang from the same mother whose memory I so much love and revere!” ‘God bless you for these assurances, Pamela !” murmured Mr. Ponsford, deeply affected. “ You shall see your sister I fear that she is very ill—she has suffered much ” “What is her name?” asked Pamela, in a compassionating tone. LLP ELT ITT TTS GT AD OP fA a this daughter whom you have just discovered, and this dear sister who is to be given unto me!” ‘* Let me assure you, Pamela,” added her sire, ‘that she is in every way worthy of the interest with which you are inspired. If it were other- wise, I would not for the world bring you in con- tact with her! But positive and without reserve was the answer which I received,—when in sus- pense and uncertainty—aye, and in fearful doubt- fulness, I put the question ere now to the young gentleman who brought me the intelligence,—I put the question, I say, which was to thé effect whether the poor girl had passed stainless and pure through the ordeal of sufferings and tempta- tions which, alas! she has most probably besn doomed to encounter ?” ‘‘Every additional word that falls from your lips, my dear father,” exclaimed Pamela, “ ren- ders me more and more anxious to hasten and claim my new sister!” ‘‘And in her companionship,” said Ponsford, inquiringly, ‘you will more or less forget, my child, your own afflictions ?” “If there be yet a chance of happiness on earth for me,” cried Pamela, ‘it will arise from impatt- ing happiness to others. Oh, the thought of having a sister is delightful to a degree! And nearly my own age too!” ‘‘ And thus, if heaven should spare her,” added Ponsford, ‘“ there will yet be the source of a pure and holy light to shine upon your life;—that life which, alas! 1 lately feared was doomed to the unbroken dulness of night!” “‘ Rest assured, dear father, that in the society of the sister whom I am sure I shall love,and who will love me, I shall find solace and comfort— perhaps even happiness!” “TI thought that it might be so,” exclaimed Ponsford; ‘and this was one of the reasons which decided me in taking you into my confi- dence—even though in doing so it was necessary I should make a revelation that caused me to blush in your presence !” ‘‘And now tell me, father,” said the young lady eagerly, ‘‘when I shall taste the first draught of this new well-spring of happiness?’ ‘This evening, Pamela,” was the response. ‘'Yes—you shall accompany me! Hester is with her mother—that mother who was the victim of my perfidy, and to whom I shall kneel for pardon. Oh, it shall be an hour of atonement for me! Prepare yourself, therefore, Pamela, for the meet- ing which is thus to take place ere the present day shall have closed!” With these words Mr. Ponsford affectionately embraced his daughter, whom he then left to Sh ECOMnlcbOoks