Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 222: what you’re looking at

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

—_—--——~ ELLEN PERCY; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF AN ACTRESS, 2098 ee eee eee oo i Hit j 1 he ; \} Ait j ivi} 1 1 ¥ +s | imal SSS ——= mm ni | For four days and for four nights neither of us had closed an eye in slumber, until now at length my relentless persecutor — my implacable tor- mentor, was exhausted first! Yes—it ‘was indeed no artifice on his part—no delusion on mine: that man slept! My trembling fingers sought about his person for the key of the door; and I soon clutched it. Ina few moments that door opened —I crossed the threshold—lI closed and locked it again. So great was the relief I experienced in escaping from that appalling spectacle, and from that atmosphere sickly and fetid with the presence of the dead, that I almost fainted as I entered upon the landing. But I was sustained by a pre- ternatural fortitude. The hour was yet too early for the domestics to be about; and, unobserved, I reached my ownchamber. There I hastily put on a bonnet and scarf; and I took with me whatso- ever ready money I possessed: but not a single Ys Megs, yi i) G2 sis ij lavished upon me—no, not even so much as thé wedding ring—that emblem of a detested alliance— would I take! I succeeded in issuing unperceived from the chateau ; and when I breathed the fresh air of freedom, it was only to find myself an out cast wanderer upon the face of the earth.” ‘““Oh, my beloved sister!” exclaimed the Mar: chioness of Campanella, “why came you not to me ?—for if your tale had been told us, we should have believed it—yes, my husband and myself would have put faith in your words!” “No, no! you would not!” responded Beatrice : “for was not the horrible conviction strong in my mind that circumstantial evidences had fearfully combined against me? Did I not know that the Count would tell his tale, not merely as he himself actually believed it in all its details, but in the spirit of a vindictive exaggeration? And then too, I reflected that branded as I was, if I sought article of all the jewellery which my husband had! your abode I should only be bringing disgrace and No. 27.—ELLEN Percy. GoOmicboo ———- eoOimMm