Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 377: what you’re looking at

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} 364 ELLEN PERCY; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF AN ACTRESS, “My God!” I murmured to myself; “it is now but too apparent! Yes, my poor grandfather, thou wast poisoned! — and that same species of poison which took thy life seven years back, was six months ago intended to take mine likewise !” I placed the little box in my pocket, and I issued from the room where I had made a dis- covery so important in its horrible significancy. There was a tremendous consternation resting upon my mind—an awful dismay sitting like a nightmare upon my soul, “Oh, of how many crimes am I to become aware in this world!” I thought within myself,— «I who have never committed any !” I issued from the house, locking the front door and taking the key with me. I saw Mr. Jacobs standing on the threshold of his office, evidently waiting to see whether I had any instructions to give him in reference to the premises: but I af- fected not to notice him and hastened along the street, for my mind was too much agitated to allow me to enter into immediate discourse with any one. Before I returned to the hotel I walked about Leeds that I might compose my feelings somewhat, so as to avoid betraying to Beda the extent to which they had been harrowed and hor- rified. At length, when I did go back to the hotel, I sent out Beda to make certain private inquiries; and then I shut myself in my chamber, to reflect upon everything which had transpired on this memorable morning. CHAPTER LXIII. MES. NORMAN. THAT my unfortunate grandfather had been poisoned by the infamous Mrs, Parks, I had not now the slightest doubt; and I was almost equally certain of the complicity of her son in the stupen- dous crime. As I meditated upon the awful sub- ject, I gradually began to comprehend the motives which the Parks’s must have had for this atrocity. My grandfather had made his will in my favour ; and no doubt Mrs. Parks had by some means or another ascertained that it was in the house and that it had not been entrusted to the care of a solicitor. Thus, if my grandfather were put out of the way, the will might be likewise destroyed and a forged one substituted. A variety of cir- cumstances must have induced Mrs. Parks and her son to accelerate by a crime the death of the old man for whose decease in the natural course of things they deemed it not prudent to wait. There was the visit of my aunt Mrs. Wakefield, which visié might have been repeated, and my grand- father might have entrusted her with the will or acquainted her with its contents and have left me to her guardianship. ‘Then there was the sudden appearance of my father in the neighbourhood ; and Mrs. Parks could not tell what influence he might possibly manage sooner or later to obtain over the old man. I myself was getting of an age at which I might be supposed to be intelli- gent with respect to whatsoever was passing around me; and the more I became capable of rendering myself useful to my grandfather, the more would the influence of Mrs. Parks decline, ee et > And then too, Mrs. Parks could not have failed to perceive that she was more or less an object of suspicion to the old man, though ho had not the moral courage to dispense with her further ser. vices. Thus, all thing considered, there were plenty of reasons for Mrs. Parks and her son to apprehend that Mr. Forsyth’s wealth would even- tually slip out of their hands unless they perpe- trated a crime, promptly and boldly, though with diabolic insidiousness, to secure his riches for themselves. Yes—I now comprehended it all! I could read the past as lucidly as if it were being unfolded to me by some superior genius haying a knowledge of all things. And then, in reference to tho poison by which the crime had been perpetrated, —there were the lozenges of the very same species which the old hag, Dame Betty, Zarah’s grandmother had given to Beda with instructions that they were to be administered to me. Mrs. Parks had probably procured those envenomed lozenges from Dame Betty herself, or else from some wretch of the same gang to whom the secret of the horrible compound was known; and in the hurry in which we had left the house after my grandfather’s death, the guilty woman had for- gotten to destroy those traces of her crime. I could not help feeling, with a sensation of solemn awe, that the hand of providence had been gra- dually guiding me on towards the discovery of this tremendous crime,—first by making me aware at Birmingham of how such things as the poisoned lozenges were in existence,—then, more recently, enabling me to obtain from Mr. Parks the con- veyance of the old house at Leeds, in order that If might come back to this very house and there dis- cover the concealed evidence of the iniquity which had been accomplished. The reader may well suppose that my reflections ranged not merely over the past, but that they applied to the present and the future, and that I deliberated with myself what steps I should take in order to bring Mr. Parks to justice, if he were really an accomplice in his deceased mother’s guilt. I conceived that I had now a solemn duty to per- form—namely, to punish the surviving assassin (if an assassin he really were) of my unfortunate old relative. I was resolved that nothing should in- duce me to depart from this duty—nothing should compel me to forego it. I was inspired by no vin- dictive feeling on my own account through the loss of my fortune: the duty which I had to perform I regarded in the sacred light of something high above all selfish considerations. But what course should I adopt to discover first of all whether Mr, Parks were really the guilty accomplice of his mother ?—and if this could be by any means proven, how was I to bring that guilt home to him? I saw that my position was altogether a difficult one in these respects: but still I was re« solved to be daunted by no obstacles and to be de- terred by no considerations. I had sent out Beda to make certain private inquiries connected with a matter very different from that to which I am referring. After an ab- sence of upwards of an hour the faithful girl re- turned ; and I assumed as composed a demeanour as possible—for I did not at present wish to enter into any explanations with regard to my horrible discoveries of that morning, though I had no CORNICE OOKS,COm -