Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 178: what you’re looking at

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

——_—-—— PERSE — SS —_ —_ ELLEN PERCY; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF AN ACTRESS. ee we ere 164 certain cheque and a certain Marquis which would have for ever branded Melissa with infamy. Miss Churchill was conveyed to my own room, where I laid her upon the sofa, and began to ad- minister restoratives. Two other ballet-dancers had helped to support their companion thither. It was only a few minutes back that I had been long- ing to speak to Angeline, and had resolved to throw myself in her way; and now accident had flung us together! I wished to be alone with her; and I said to the two girls, “ You would perhaps do well to leave your companion to my care. She has been grossly insulted, and her nerves have been strongly acted upon. See! she is recovering! the presence of several persons may excite her leave her alone with me, that I may console and soothe her.” The two danseuses accordingly retired; and scarcely had the door of the dressing-room closed behind them, when a strange incident took place. Angeline Churchill at that instant opened her violet eyes; but no sconer did her gaze meet mine, when all languor and faintness suddenly abandoned her—and with an ejaculation which struck me as being full of mingled terror and aversion, she sprang from my arms,—for though lying upon the sofa, yet her head was pillowed upon my bosom. “Good heavens! what is the matter, Miss Churchill ?” I exclaimed. ‘‘ You are not with an enemy !—you are with a friend !” “A friend?” ejaculated Angeline, in accents so singular that I was hurt, affrighted, and bewil- dered ; for her voice seemed to indicate the bitter- ness of hatred mingled with scorn and contempt. “Is it possible,’ I ejaculated, involuntarily giving audible utterance to the thought which now suddenly flashed to my mind !—“is it possible that her brain is turned ?” “No, Miss Percy,” she responded, having caught the words which had thus issued from my lips: “ my brain is not turned !” I started when she addressed me by my proper name of Percy; for though it was pretty generally known in theatrical circles, and even beyond them, what my real name was, yet no one except private friends ever addressed me otherwise than as Miss Trafford—especiaily when at the theatre. “Yes,” repeated Angeline Churchill, with what appeared to me to be a renewed bitterness of tone, and with a look of hatred flashing out of her violet eyes,—“ I never was more sane in my life; but I would rather be mad than by the lucid pos- session of my reason be enabled to comprehend that I am placed under an obligation to you /” Astonishment for a few moments held me silent: I was confounded and bewildered. At length drawing myself up to the fulness of my tall stature, I said with a cold dignity, “It were a charity, Miss Ciurchil], to believe that you are insane, in order to acquit you of the grossest and most unaccountable breach of good manners which I ever had the misfortune to contemplate.” “T care as little for the evil as I do for the good opinion of Ellen Percy,” retorted Angeline,—whose nature which I had hitherto believed to be so gentle, seemed to be transformed into that of a tigress—or rather to be developing qualities of evil end capacities of hatred which metbought must have Jain strangely dormant before. “ At all events, Miss Churchill,’ I said, still oe — ee speaking with a dignified coldness—though ac- tually I found it difficult to prevent myself from bursting into tears; for I was cruelly hurt, shocked, and afflicted, by the conduct of Angeline towards me,—“ but at all events, Miss Caurchill, you will perhaps explain in what manner [ have been unfortunate enough to offend you; for I can assure you that I am not so indifferent as you affect to be to the good or evil opinions of my fellow-creatures—and as I am utterly unconscious of having done aught that might provoke your rancour i “You have done everything!” ejaculated Ange- line wildly; “you have reduced me to what I am!”—then throwing herself upon the sofa, she burst into an agony of tears. “Good heaven!” I thought within myself; “after all the poor creature is demented !—and I have been treating her so coldly and haughtily!”— then advancing towards Angeline, I said in a mild soothing voice, “ No, no! I am incapable of doing you an injury! On the contrary, I experienced a feeling of interest towards you from the very first moment I beheld you " “Ah! a feeling of interest in me?’ ejaculated Miss Churchill, suddenly removing her hands from her countenance, and looking up at me with her violet eyes which still expressed fierce hatred even through the tears that were standing in them: “a feeling of interest in me! But do you know me?” she abruptly demanded, “Know you?” I said, again smitten with as- tonishment, and also with a cruel misgiving in respect to her sanity. ‘I know you as Angeline Churchill—a name which perhaps is not your own any more than mine is really Trafford ce “But by any other name do you know me?” she demanded, with sudden fierceness, as she riveted her eyes upon my countenance; and her white teeth gleamed between her quivering lips which were almost as white themselves. “No,” I responded—but not without a sensa- tion of affright lest she should suddenly burst forth into a maniac violence and spring furiously upon me. “Ah! I thought not!’ muttered Angeline: and then she was moving towards the door, when she turned as if a sudden thought had smitten her, and she exclaimed with renewed fierceness and violence, “ Ah! you felt an interest in me? Could it have been that in your soul there was a pre- sentiment that I was a being who had suffered on your account—yes, a presentiment which made you feel that you had wronged me, although you still remained in utter ignorance of who I really was! Oh, away with all pretended feeling and in- terest! You have no pity and no compunction! Have you not reduced me to what I am?—is it not through you that I have become a ballet- dancer P—through you therefore that I have been compelled to submit to the insults of that imper- tinent young woman whose tainted reputation renders it horrible and loathsome for me to come in contact with her? Now do not think I am mad, Miss Percy! Yow are not more sane than [! But enough. Perhaps the time will come when you may know more! At all events deem not that you have laid me under an obligation to you:—I would kill myself if I thought for a single moments that it was so!” JOO) SS (EO)