Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 216: what you’re looking at

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ELLEN PERCY; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF AN ACTRESS, 203 fond look of grateful affection for the interest he was now expressing in behalf of her unhappy sister ; and his lordship said with emphasis, “ There are errors and sins which may be expiated by an intensity of suffering, and which may be atoned for by a due amount of penitence. That Beatrice has suffered horribly there can be no doubt! As for her penitence = “ And what, my lord,” I solemnly interjected,— “ what if she be altogether innocent ?” ** Ah! Miss Trafford,” he exclaimed, “I fear that it is your natural goodness of heart which makes you hope for that which is barely possible. But again I say let us not abandon ourselves to sur- mises and speculations, when perhaps the hour is approaching in which we shall receive the fullest explanations.” At my suggestion a hired vehicle was engaged instead of the Marquis’s private carriage ; and we proceeded to Whitechapel. We alighted at some little distance from the church; and thitherward we repaired on foot. The Marquis and Mar. chioness had never before been in that neighbour- hood, where the business of an active retail com- merce presents so many phases, and is so singularly associated with the evidences of squalor, poverty, dissipation, and vice. A glance thrown into the half- open doors of the numerous public-houses, shows the beholder that nowhere in London are the temples erected to the Idol of Intemperance more fre- quented ; while the same may be said of the pawn- brokers’ shops: and nowhere perhaps in the great metropolis may such numbers of rough ill-looking men or dirty slatternly females be seen; nowhere such crowds of miserable children playing in the gutters and picking remnants of food from amidst the garbage which has been thrown down there. We were full a quarter of an hour too soon; and not choosing to remain stationary in front of the church, we walked about in its immediate neighbourhood. The clock struck three,—which was the appointed time: but the woman made not her appearance. Half an hour passed—and she came not. The Marquis grew impatient — the Marchioness and myself more and more uneasy ; we all three began to apprehend that I had been made the dupe of a cheat. Four o’clock struck: the dusk was beginning to close in,—for the month of February had not yet quite reached its termi- nation; and there had been a partial fog all the afternoon. The gas was already lighted in several shops; and its broad jets, unprotected by lamps, were flickering and flaming in front of the array of butchers’ stalls along the eastern side of White- shapel. We were beginning io think that it was useless to remain any longer, when all of a sudden I beheld the woman approaching. “Sorry to have kept you waiting, Miss,” she at once said, as she accosted me: “but I have had such trouble in finding out what I wanted to learn. The fact is, | was down in this neighbour- hood last evening, to pay a visit to a friend,—when in a street hard by I saw that young person— Miss Howard, I think you called her—gliding rapidly alone; and she was out of sightin a minute. But I felt tolerably sure she was living somewhere in this neighbourhood; and I was determined to find out.” “Well, well!” I ejaculated, feverish with im- patience. “ Have you succeeded ?” “ Yes—at last,” replied the woman. “I knowed it was of no use inquiring at the gin-shops—)e- cause she was too steady for that: but I thought that may be she might be heard of at the ’tatur and coal-sheds—or, saving your presence, at the pawnbroker’s a “Enough!” I interrupted the garrulous and unfeeling woman, “ If you have found her abode, guide us to it!” * Yes, Miss—I have no objection—I can take you there fast enough But there’s a little mat- ter, you know a4 “ Ah, true!” I exclaimed, now no longer able to conceal my loathing for the wretch’s mercenary character; and I put five sovereigns into her hand. “Come along!” she said, clutching the gold with avidity. We followed her into a maze of streets—or rather lanes, alleys, and courts, constituting a per- fect labyrinth of obscurity, with all the evidences of squalor and poverty nevertheless only too plainly visible : while the atmosphere was offensive and seemed veritably pestilential. ** Good heavens !” murmured the Marchioness to me, “that my poor sister should have been compelled to take refuge y , She stopped short: she could say no more: her voice was lost in low convulsive sobbings. *“‘ Sustain and console yourself, my lady,” I said, “with the thought that you will speedily bear your sister to a better and more suitable home.” The woman, who was guiding us, presently stopped at the door of a house in an alley so nar- row that persons might shake hands across it from the opposite windows. Two or three dirty, half-naked children were playing upon the door- step; and an ill-looking man was leaning against the window:sill, smoking a pipe, and not offering to make way for us. “There!” said the woman who had been our guide into the midst of this labyrinth; “ you will find Miss Howard here—though it’s of no use ask- ing for her by that name, for the people of the house don’t know her by any at all.” Having thus spoken, she walked away; anda young sickly-looking female, with a squalid child in her arms, came forth from a room on the ground-floor when I knocked at the door, which stood open. In answer to the queries that I put the woman informed us that she had a lodger cor- responding with the description which I gave ; and ‘thus the apprehensions which I had seriously en- tertained in respect to the good faith of the burly dame of the region of Clare Market, were set at rest. Indeed, there could be no doubt that. poor Beatrice was found at last! In pursuance of the directions given by the sickly-looking woman, I conducted the Marquis and Marchioness up a narrow, dark, broken stair- case, to the very highest floor. There we knocked at a door: it was opened; and by the sickly light of a miserable candle the countenance of Beatrice was recognised. But good heavens! how altered— oh, how altered by privation, suffering, and dis- tress of every kind! An ejaculation of surprise more than of joy burst from her lips on beholding me: for she did not immediately perceive her sister and the Marquis, who remained in the ob- security of the landing. But now ensued a scene Com ElOOOLK com