Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 330: what you’re looking at

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

_——_—_—_—_ ow = ee 2 ee _ ELLEN PERCY; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF AN ACTRESS. 817 Neen nn eee ee ne a ee een eee utterly discomfited, crushed, and spirit-broken. We entered the house: the servant who opened the door, looked surprised to find me accompanied by a person who was a stranger to him, and by Lord Frederick Ravenscliffe ; for a long while had elapsed since the latter had last visited at that dwelling. I conducted my father and the young nobleman to the drawing-room ; and having hastily thrown off my bonnet and scarf upon a sofa, I said to my father, “ You have yet to learn the full extent of that infamy which has been practised towards your daughter !” “Tf your father knows it not already, Miss Percy,” cried Lord Frederick in a voice of the most anguished entreaty, “ I beseech you that he may remain ignorant of it!” “ My father already knows much upon the sub- ject,” I said, the indignant blood mantling upon my cheeks; “and he shall know everything. Ah! I can assure you, my lord, it is a very painful ordeal for me to pass through! Never in all my life before, did I experience an anger so fierce !— never were my feelings so terribly outraged ! Father,” I continued, “this is the guilty indi- vidual who devised the hideous fraud upon the Marquis of Tynedale !—a fraud in which Melissa Harrison was his profligate and abandoned accom- plice! Butif providence had not opened a clue for the unravelment of the whole skein of vil- lany, the Marquis would have continued in a be- lief most fatal to my character—-—-Ob, my blood boils as I think of it!” “ Good God!” cried my father; “has human wickedness gone to this fearful extent? I under. stand you, Eilen—I can now readitall! Infa- mous villain that you are!” he exclaimed, thus suddeniy addressing himself to Lord Frederick ; and in a violent paroxysm of rage he seized the young nobleman forcibly by the collar of his coat. “ Miss Percy, for heaven’s sake spare me !” said Ravenscliffe, in a voice of anguish. * Unhand him, father,’ I said: * do him no violence !—for there is one reason--and one reason only, which prevents me from regretting that all this has taken place, now that my character is completely cleared and Lord Tynedale is disabused of the ideas which he entertained concerning me.’ “Villain!” ejaculated my father: and he flung the young nobleman from him ere he loosened his hold upon his garment, Lord Frederick fell upon a chair, where he sat gazing upon me with a countenance that was ghastly pale, and he was striving to give utterance to some words : but for awhile he could not. My father paced to and fro in an excited manner ; and I was so agitated by the nature of my feel- ings that I could not at once resume my discourse to Ravenscliffe. “For God’s sake tell me, Miss Percy,” he at length said,—“ Lord Tynedale knows everything what will he do? what does he threaten?” _* He does not as yet know that you were the imstigator of the infamous fraud which that aban- doned young woman perpetrated towards him. It rests with yourself, my lord,” I continued, “ whether the secret be kept—or whether it be proclaimed, not merely to the Marquis of Tynedale, but to the whole world. You know in whose house you now are:—you know that presently the victim of your foulest deception will return hither :—you may probably surmise for what purpose you have been brought to this abode. An act of justice must be accomplished! Juliet Norman has been dishonoured by you—and you must repair the evil! Are you willing to do this as the sole con- dition on which I will consent to keep that secret whose revelation would stamp you with indelible infamy ?” “ My God!—and Felicia?” ejaculated Ravens- cliffe, starting up in sudden frenzy from his seat. * Ah, poor girl!’ I said, with a deep sigh: “she will doubtless suffer much from this ill-fated love which she has conceived towards you! But even if [ had it not in my power to demand for Juliet the accomplishment of this act of justice, I would not at all events suffer Mr. Gower, un- warned or unadvised concerning your true cha- racter, to bestow his daughter upon your lord- ship P” “But if I marry Juliet,’ exclaimed Ravens- cliffe, with anguished and passionate vehemence, “how am I to maintain her ?—how am I[ to main- tain myself? { am ruined. Everything which I inherited from the bounty of deceased relatives, has been made away with. I am overwhelmed with debts—I am a younger son—the allowance my father makes me is insignificant—and if I were to marry a ballet-dancer, he would discard me ut- terly.” “It is impossible to take all these things into consideration,” I said, firmly and decisively; “you have robbed Juliet of her honour—you must make her an honourable woman! Even if you separate immediately after the ceremony, this must be done: and even if she be compelled to continue upon the stage, as Lady Frederick Ravenscliffe the ballet-dancer, still I repeat it must be done! She has but one thing to care for—and that is to have the sacred name of wife conferred upon her. As for the circumstances which personally regard yourself alone, they are utterly beyond all con- sideration. You had no consideration for poor Juliet’s feelings when you so grossly deceived her : and do you therefore for an instant imagine that there shall be a delicate consideration on your own account ?”’ Lord Frederick Ravenscliffe gazed upon me with a half frenzied, half woe-begone expression of countenance, as I thus addressed him. But he beheld nothing in my lcoks to encourage the faintest hope that I would recall enything that I had said: he glanced at my father, who was now standing with folded arms~and /is features were stern and resolute. “ Yes, my lord,” he said, stepping forward, “you shall do justice to that young woman whom you so basely injured. You made use of the power which the knowledge of my sad secret gave you, to coerce me into an infamous complicity in your crime: but now the tables are turned, and I make use of my power over you to unite with my daughter in enforcing this act of justice. If I have sinned deeply, I am now at least making the best atonement that is in my power. Yes, my lord, you see before you two persons who are firmly resolved to vindicate a female’s outraged honour; and the reparation shall be effected by youl” a ae ee ee en - -—=— = a ee ee 8 re ee ee ee JOO <S Com