Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 44: what you’re looking at

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

tl LL LLL LLL LLL LLL ELLEN PERCY; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF AN ACTRESS. 31 seat, she gave me to understand that her husband would make his appearance in a few minutes. She then proceeded to chatter away about her children, who, she informed me, were all absent from home at the time, at the different schools which they fre- quented, according to their ages and sexes. [I should observe that the house was large and sump- tuously furnished,—every thing denoting the pos- session of great wealth on the part of its proprie- tor. But there was an utter absence of good taste in all the appointments ; so that its very splendour had an air of tawdriness—and its rooms, crowded with furniture and costliest nick-nacks, seemed more intended for ostentatious display than for do- mestic comfort. Presently the door opened somewhat abruptly ; and Mr. Parks made his appearance, at the same time ushering in another gentleman. This latter individual had a military appearance. He was in reality, as I afterwards learnt, not more than five- and-thirty years of age—but he looked at least forty, on account of a certain dissipated appear- ance and the ravages which debauchery had made upon him. Thus, beneath the eyes the flesh looked somewhat blue and swollen: there were hard lines across his brow, and wrinkles at the corners of the eyes. He had light sandy hair, and large mous- tachios, scarcely a shade deeper in hue. Handsome he had decidedly been; and his profile was still good. He was tall and well made: his appear- ance was not only military, but likewise aristocrati- cally distinguished. His manners were those of a polished gentleman, when he thought fit to render them so: but in the course of the evening I fan- cied that he surveyed me with a boldness which at times amounted to a mingled insolence and famili- arity which brought the colour to my cheeks. “ My dear Ellen,” said Mr. Parks, as he made his appearance in company with the gentleman whom I have just described, “ I am delighted to see you. I had intended that we should dine alone, as I have a great deal to say to you: but I met Colonel Bellew at the door—he is an intimate friend of mine—he has the run of the house—so he was just dropping in to take pot luck with us —and I could not refuse him.—Colonel Bellew, allow me the honour of presenting you to Miss Percy.” The Colonel bowed, and said with a polite smile, *‘T should have been very sorry indeed, Parks, if you had refused me the pleasure of dining at your table on such an occasion.” It will have been seen from the lawyer’s obser- vations that though he lived in the midst of so much splendour and affected so much state, he nevertheless had not contrived to discard certain vulgarities from his discourse ; and I could not help wondering that the polished and distinguished Colonel Bellew should entertain such a bosom friend- ship for the somewhat coarse-minded Mr. Parks. Dinner was shortly afterwards announced : the Colonel offered me his arm; and we descerded to the dining-room. It was not a mere dinner—it was a banquet of the most sumptuous description, —a very pleasant sort of “ pot-luck” for the Colo- nel to be enabled to drop in upon whenever he might think fit. Yet with the wretched false taste and that inverse system of boasting into which up- atarts and parvenus are sure to fall, Mr. and Mrs. Parks apologized for the meal,—declaring “ it ee LL NN ——— $$ SS was a mere family dinner—they had only intended to treat me as one of themselves—and that they could not possibly have foreseen the Colonel meant to join them that day.” There were wines in profusion : Colonel Bellew did justice to the champagne; and it was when getting heated therewith that he began to regard me across the table in a way that I did not like. Methought that on two or three occasions Parks shook his head deprecatingly at his friend, as much as to give him to understand that the bold earnest- ness of his regards was annoying me. I was glad when the dessert was placed upon the table, and Mrs. Parks shortly afterwards rose and conducted me up to the drawing-room. [I should observe that not the slightest reference had been made the whole time to my own personal circumstances : the name of the Normans was not mentioned. I did not even know whether Mr. and Mrs. Parks were aware that I was preparing for the stage. Nor could I even conjecture how Mr. Parks ascertained my address when he was purposing to call on me in the morning. Now that I was alone with his wife- in the drawing-room, I naturally thought that she would discourse with me on _ those topics :—but nothing of the sort. She expatiated on the pleasures of London life—the large circle of fashionable friends which she and her husband possessed—the number of her servants—the ele- gance of her parties—and the prices of the costly ornaments which were everywhere so heaped about that it was impossible to move through the draw- ing-room without running the risk of doing some damage with the sleeves or skirts of one’s dress. Thinking that possibly Mr. or Mrs. Parks might have communicated with my aunt at Paisley, L questioned the lady on the subject : but she replied in the negative, and instantaneously flew off at a tangent to tell me how much she had given for a particular china monster which stood upon 4 console, and how old Lady Maulligatawney, the nabob’s wife, had gone into fits at finding herself outbidden at the sale of curiosities where the afore- said china monster was purchased for the express behoof of Mrs. Parke, who had seen and fallen in love with it the day before. It was not till past ten o’clock that the two gentlemen joined us in the drawing-room; and then I perceived that both were much the worse for the wine of which they had partaken, Mr. Parks leant against the wall to sip his coffee; and there he swayed to and fro in a manner which seemed every instant to threaten his equilibrium with diseomfiture. The Colonel walked perfectly steady—but had a very flushed countenance. Dis- gusted with the scene—wearied of Mrs. Parks’s tirades relative to the prices of her furniture and nicknacks—and perceiving that there was no chance of my obtaining on this occasion auy in- formation in respect to the many things that Mr. Parks had expressed himself desirous to talk about —I whispered to the lady that I should like to return home. “T am very sorry, my dear Miss Percy,” she answered, also in a whisper, “that we cannot send the carriage with you, as the coachman begged leave to go out this evening, his father being dead or something of the sort. But if you do not mind a hackney-coach unless indeed you will accept -a bed here for the night——” COIN Ghook - eoMm