Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 137: what you’re looking at

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ee ee mT A et 124 ELLEN PERCY; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF AN ACTRESS, her hands a terrible weapon to use against me; you enabled her to wring my heart with her irony and excruciate my soul with herscoffing. You did not spare me, Ellen s “TI declare to you, Captain St. Clair,” I an- swered, terrified by his tone and his looks, “that except to Lady Lilla Essendine I never mentioned that occurrence. She received me in her carriage that night when I escaped from your house: and I was forced to give her an explanation. I have spared you, Captain St. Clair!—I have spared you too much! If there be in your disposition one spark of generosity ~ “T will tell you, Ellen,” interrupted St. Clair, “to what extent my generosity reaches. I will leave you here for one half-hour’s reflection; and I will tell you what you have toreflect upon. It is whether you wil! surrender yourself to my arms 54 “ Silence, sir! enough !” Tindignantly exclaimed. “Your words are fraught with insult !” “Tf it be so,” he said, in a dogged and resolute manner, “there is no need for leniency! Ah, proud beauty! the moment for your humiliation is come !” He was advancing towards me, with looks that filled me with the wildest terror,—when it sud- denly struck me that it was a perfect act of mad- ness on my part not to have gained the half-hour which he proffered: for in that space of time the hand of providence, through the seeming medium of the chapter of accidents, might afford me the means of safety and escape. “Speak! speak!” I cried. you have me reflect upon ?” “Ah! are you growing reasonable?” he said, with a sort of sneering satisfaction. ‘ You will at least be wise to become so! Now, understand your position well, Ellen. You are completely in my power—this house is lonely—all the wildest shrieks or most frantic cries which your lips might send forth, would fail to bring you succour. As for myself, I am resolute and determined. My love for you has been, and still is, a madness and an infatuation! Reflect therefore whether you will resignedly accept your destiny—whether you will receive with a willing hand the wealth that I am enabled to shower upon you—and whether you will become my mistress as if you were won as other women may be won! Let your decision be in the affirmative, and the thought of vengeance instantaneously vanishes from my mind. I will not treat you as one whom I have humiliated—but as one whom I am to cherish and love. I will be to you all tenderness and affection. Though your master now, I will henceforth become your slave. You shall be as happy, Ellen, as it is in my power to render you ;—and to make you independent of the world I will settle thousands upon you!” It was with the utmost difficulty I could stifle my indignant feelings, or keep down the burning glow from my cheeks, as I listened to this speech. But so desperate was my position—in the power of a man whose character was equally desperate— that I was nerved with an extraordinary self- possession in order to carry the point on which alone my salvation seemed to depend. I therefore assumed an air of reflection; and when St. Clair had finished speakiag, I said, ‘ Leave—leave me! Give me leisure to resign myself to my fate !” “Oh, what would “T knew that you would become reasonable !” he ejaculated, with a look of triumph: then has- tily consulting his watch, he added, “In half-an- hour I shall return.” He issued from the room, locking the door upon me. I flew to the iron bars once more: I tore at them—Oh! with what desperate energy did I en- deavour to wrench them forth: but all in vain! Thus several minutes elapsed; and I threw myself, exhausted and wretched, upon a seat. But it was only to start up again in a few moments: and then I examined the door. The lock was let into the wood itself, and could not therefore be wrenched off. There were fire-irons in the grate; and these might serve as implements to break down the door: but I knew that at the very first sound in- dicative of an attempt to escape, my persecutor would return. What could I do? The precious minutes were flitting by: for, Oh! time goes so quickly when it is most valuable ;—and my posi- tion seemed hopeless. I wrung my hands in de- spair: I could scarcely prevent myself from shriek- ing out—but I knew how useless it would be! All of a sudden I heard a footstep underneath the window; and glancing in that direction, I be- held the countenance of Zarah, the younger gipsy, close against the bars. Her finger was upon her lip to enjoin silence; and hope sprang up in my heart. The next instant I was at the window. “Give me your kerchief, and one of the fire implements,” said Zarah, in the lowest possible whisper. I hastened to obey: and she observed, “ You have doubtless seen him? How long can you reckon that it will be ere his return P” “ He has given me half-an-hour to reflect “Enough! I thought it was something of that sort. Be silent!” Zarah took my kerchief, which she tied tightly round the two central bars—for they were four in number. Then, by means of the poker which 1 had given her from the grate, she kept twisting the handkerchief in such a manner that the effect was to bring the bending bars nearer and nearer towards each other. She worked with dexterity and vigour; and I watched the progress with an intense anxiety. I comprehended that she sought to accomplish my escape without being herself suspected that she had done so. In a few minutes the bars came out of their sockets at the lower extremities; and it was then a comparatively easy task to remove them altogether. “Lay them down in the room, together with the kerchief,”’ whispered Zarah, whose handsome countenance was now beaming with a satisfaction that had a certain degree of malignity in it, as if she were rejoiced at baffling the schemes of Edwin St. Clair: for I could not suppose that it was through any particular love for me that the gipsy was thus acting. I laid the bars, together with the kerchief and the poker which its twisted coils enfolded, upon the nearest chair; and aided by Zarah, I passed through the window. “This way!” she said, still speaking in the lowest possible whisper: and she led me round to the back part of the premises. There a gate opened into a field, through which she conducted mein silence. Thus, by a circuitous route, she gained the road: but I knew that the ” a a ee if . ee « eee tere area CORnNIEDIOOKS com