Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 301: what you’re looking at

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

238 « Now, my dear Ellen,” said my father, in a low but anxious tone, “ tell me, wherefore this meet:- ing P Your letter signified that the object was important and far from disagreeable: I gathered likewise that it closely concerned myself a “ And it does, my dear father!” I whispered. “ But hush! Heard you not a footstep ?” “ No—it was nothing but the rustling of a dead leaf along the ground. You are frightened—you are nervous, my dear Ellen—” * No—not now I am with you!” I interrupted him: then after listening for a few moments, and hearing nothing more to startle me, I went on to say in a low voice, but which was tremulous with emotions, ‘‘ You have no more to apprehend, my dear father—no one can now injure you!” “Good heavens! what mean you, Ellen?” he ejaculated, the excitement of his tone proving that he had at once suspected the truth. “Can it be that f “Tt is, dear father, that you are pardoned!” I responded, my heart leaping with joy as I gave utterance to the words. “‘Pardoned !” he wildly echoed,—utterly forget- ing, in the almost frenzied enthusiasm of his rap- tured feelings, my previous caution that he should speak guardedly. “Yes,” I said, “you are pardoned, dear father. And here is the precious document which dispels all danger from above your head !” I produced the sealed packet which I had not as yet opened: but at that very instant a hand clutched it from my grasp—it was not my father’s hand—and there was a third person on the spot! A shriek pealed from my lips—a mocking laugh rang in my ear—and that third person was darting away, when all of a sudden an ejaculation of rage closed that sardonic laugh of his. Then a female came rushing towards the spot, where my father in horrified consternation was supporting me in his arms; and the precious packet was thrust back again into my hand. “God bless you, Zarah!” I exclaimed, catching a glimpse of her countenance: but in a moment she disappeared again. ‘“ Take it, father!” I cried: “secure it about your person !—you know how much depends upon it!” I then hurried him away from the spot. CHAPTER IL. THE GUILTY LAWYER. THE entire scene which closed the preceding chapter, took place with whirlwind rapidity; the document was lost and restored all in the space of three or four instants ; and during this interval the feelings of both my father and myself were hur- ried through every variation of terror, dismay, sur- prise, and joy. To my parent however the whole proceeding was utterly incomprehensible ; for he had not recognised the villain St. Clair in the in- dividual who had snatched away the document. Indeed he had appeared and disappeared with a ghost-like rapidity. I gave him some few brief explanations,—to the effect that the reason why I was so agitated and nervous when [ first juincd him was because I BLLEN PERCY; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF AN ACTRESS. had just before encountered Edwin St. Clair—that St. Clair it now was who had snatched away the packet—and that if was his wife Zarah, whom he had very lately married, that had so suddenly and unexpectedly restored it to us. My father listened in astonishment, as well he might: but I quickly turned his thoughts into another channel, by ex- plaining how I had obtained the pardon which he had about his person. The excitement of that scene by which the document was lost and re- gained in such rapid transitions, having passed away, my father was now overpowered by his feel: ings ; and embracing me fervidly, he sobbed like a child. “* Dearest, dearest Ellen!” he murmured in broken accents ; “to think that to you I should be indebted for this !—you whom, through my own selfish fears, I suffered to be plundered of your fortune by the viliain Parks-———” “ Do not reproach yourself, my dear father,” I said. “ Believe me, it was a happy moment when I received this document from the Earl of Car- shalton !” “Tt must have been, Ellen,” responded my father; “for you are a good, kind, loving daughter to me—and the more I contemplate your excellence, the more thoroughly unworthy do I feel of having such a child!” “TI am fully disposed to be happy, my dear father,” I said: “but every self-reproach that comes from your lips only tends to mar the joy of this meeting.” “For your sake, then, Ellen,” he replied, “I will forbear from giving audible utterance to these self-reproaches : but, alas! for the rest of my life must I make them inwardly! And now, Ellen— since through you I have obtained my pardon, and that I feel as if I were a different man, treading upon different ground, breathing a different atmo- sphere—since it has at length been permitted to me to feel myself once more a freeman instead of a shackled slave—the slave of my own heinous crimes ¥ “For heaven’s sake, my dear father,” I ejacu- lated, with passionate utterance, “cease this lan- guage which drives me mad !” “Oh, what a wretch [ am,” he cried, “ that even in the very midst of my happiness the iniquity of my life must turn all to bitterness! Yet pray forgive me, Ellen! God knows I would not torture your gentle heart! And yet,” he added, in a softer tone, “ you would perhaps have greater reason for distress and affliction if you beheld me callous, indifferent, or plunged only in the rapturous feelings of a selfish joy. But be- lieve me, my beloved daughter, I am an altered man! Crime stained my life and blighted all my prospects: henceforth at least there shall be peni- tence and atonement. And now know you, Ellen, what are the first uses I shall make of the liberty of action—the freedom from terrorism and intimi- dation, which this pardon has procured for me?” “T know but of one use that you will make of it, my dear father,” I answered; “and that is to retire into some pleasant but secluded spot, where you may dwell in tranquillity of mind, and where I will often visit you. This is the plan I had settled on your behalf; and I am sure, dear father, that you will be guided by the wishes of the daughter who studies only your welfare ?” CONnNEDOOKS Com