Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 400: what you’re looking at

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ELLEN PERCY; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF AN ACTRESS. the front window so as to keep an eye upon Dame Betty’s movements, I tripped as lightly as possible out of that large room, and entered the one where the heating-places for the hops were arranged over the furnaces below. I stole towards the open trapdoor for the purpose of listening in what part of the lower range of rooms the gentleman might now be. Just beneath that trapdoor there was a sort of raised platform of woodwork, about three feet square, and a couple of feet in height,—evi- dently intended as a resting-place for the sacks or pockets of hops when lowered, so that they might thence be all the more conveniently laid on the truck or barrow by which they were conveyed out to the waggon. On this little platform the gen- tleman was seated. It was fortunate that at the very moment I was on the point of peeping over the edge of the aperture, my nose was assailed with the odour of the cigar and a wreath of the smoke was curling upward: otherwise perhaps I should have looked too far over at first, and should have been perceived. Immediately on catching a glimpse of his light hair, which was almost pale and curly as tow—for he had taken off his hat—I drew back. Then I remained motionless; and standing where I was, I was enabled through the open doorway to see Beda at the front window in the next room. Three or four minutes passed: the gentleman still continued to occupy his place in the room below, and still continued to smoke his cigar. At length Beda made me a sign to the effect that Dame Betty was entering the premises; and I in my turn now signalled the faithful girl to join me where I stood. She came gliding along, with her beautiful delicately shaped feet, as lightly as if she were an aerial spirit; and in a moment she was by my side. I placed my finger upon wy lip, to in- timate that we must observe the strictest silence: I then pointed downward in the direction of the aperture, to make her comprehend that the gen- tleman was there; and her large dark expressive eyes gave me to understand that she fathomed my purpose in listening to whatsoever might take place between this gentleman and Dame Betty. We waited for two or three minutes in breath- less silence, both of us standing as motionless as statues; while the vapour of the cigar continued to wreathe upward through the opening in the floor. The gentleman did not seem to be in any way impatient; for he occasionally hummed an opera air while enjoying his cigar. At length the words, “ Well, old dame, so you have come at last ?” reached our ears. It was the gentleman who spoke; and his voice had an agreeable melodious intonation. | “JT am but a few minutes behind the time,” re- sponded Dame Betty; and we heard her heavy shoes stamping as well as her crutch tapping upon the paved floor below. “I am not so young as I once was, and therefore not quite so active: but I have not taxed your patience overmuch.” “ Well, have you brought the things?” inquired the gentleman. “Yes,” answered Dame Betty. you brought the money ?” “What a precious polite question to put !” ejaculated the gentleman half angrily: and then bursting out into a laugh, he said, “ But you are evidently a sharp practitioner, dame.” “And have 387 “I like to be paid for what I do,” rejoined tho old woman: “and you will excuse me for saying that as I know you to be head over ears in debt, and not particularly burdened with money at pre- sent cs “You thought there was some chance of my endeavouring to bilk you?” cried the gentleman, with another gay laugh. “ But who the deuce told you that I was so embarrassed in my circum- stances P—though heaven knows it is true enough.” ‘“* These things get wind,” answered the dame. Besides, don’t you know it is my business to learn everybody’s affairs as much as possible? However, you say you have brought the money —and that is sufficient.” “Here it is—all in good yellow gold, as you stipulated that it should be. No bank notes that one of your class might find a difficulty in chang- ing! Count the coin: you will find fifty good ringing sovereigns in that bag.” “TT will take your word for it,” replied the dame, after a brief pause, during which the chink- ing of the precious metal had reached the ears of Beda and myself as we stood motionless listeners to this colloquy. “Here are the little articles,” continued the dame: and then we heard a sound as of things rattling in a tin box—so that Beda and I exchanged looks of shuddering horror, for we comprehended full well what those little arti- cles might be. “Ah,” said the gentleman, “they are just as you described them—little brown lozenges, looking like coffee-berries:”—and this observation again made me and Beda exchange shuddering glances. “Well,” said the dame, chuckling, “there is an art in compounding those precious lozenges, I can tell you! Three whole weeks has it taken me >»? “ But I hope you do not tell your secret to the woman who lives with you?” interjected the gen- tleman hastily, and evidently with some degree of anxiety. “Heaven forbid!” cried the dame. “I s0 mauage matters that she never knows what I am doing when at work with my compounds. Rest assured that I am cautious enough for my own sake as well as for your’s and any other person, gentleman or lady, who may honour me with their patronage.” “Tis well,” replied the light-haired individual who was her patron in the present instance ; “ for if these tremendous secrets once got abroad, there would very soon be an end alike of yourself, your drugs, and your patrons. But now have the goodness to repeat in the shape of instructions the assurances which on a former occasion you gave me in respect to these precious lozenges of your’s.” | * Listen attentively,” replied the old dame. “You already know that these lozenges contain a slow poison, inevitable in its effects pe “But producing no outward symptom,” ex- claimed the gentleman, “that can lead a medical man to suspect that such a poison has been ad- ministered ?” “T were the veriest fool in my art,” replied Dame Betty, “if I could not in this respect out- wit all the doctors in the world.” “ Well, true!” said the gentleman, flippantly ; “you have grown old and grey in your iniquities CORMIElOOOL< com