Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 234: what you’re looking at

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

— - —— ELLEN PERCY; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF AN ACTRESS. “Now,” I interrupted her, “ 1 must insist upon leaving you alone together. You are old friends —there may be subjects concerning which you have given each other your confidence 4 “There is no topic, Miss Percy,’ said Char- lotte, “ upon which I need hesitate to touch in your presence. Therefore, if you would really afford me a proof that you desire my acquaint- ance and wisk that it should ripen into friend- ship a * T cannot commence such an acquaintance or such a friendship by intruding on your secrets,” I said. Besides, [ have really some calls to make,” I added, as an excuse for separation : ‘fand you must suffer me to depart.” “On this condition,” exclaimed Charlotte, * that you will call upon me to-morrow or at your earliest convenience ? Pray do!’ she added urgently. “Ishall long to see you again, Miss Percy!” I gave the protnise that was solicited ; and be- fore I left the two young ladies together, I said to Miss Parks, “ if you can call upon me in the evening, Jane, I should be glad, as I wish to see you.” She answered in the effirmative ; and I pro- ceeded towards the Strand, leaving Ciarlotte Tre- maine and Jane Parks upon Waterloo Bridge. As the reader may suppose, [ had ample food for reflection in all that I had heard from the lips of Mr. Parks, and in the discovery that his clerk Moss was after all most likely to be the person who had plundered me of my fortune. But I will not trouble the reacer with my meditations on this subject: what their nature must have been can no doubt be easily imagined. On reaching Great Ormond Street, I anxiously inquired of Beda if the humpbacked dwarf had called during my absence: but I was answered in the negative. I then told the astonished Beda the particulars of my visit to the house in the street leading out of the York Road,—bhow Ma- demoiselle Angeline had turned out to be Miss Parks, and how she was living there with her father. Other particulars I gave, relative to the explanations I had received from the lips of Mr. Parks; and Beda, at the conclusion of my narra- live, exclaimed, “ Although I am prepared to be astonishid at nothing in this world, yet I must confess that I did believe Mr. Moss to be an honest and well-meaning young man and faith- fully devoted to your interests !” “Such also was my impression,” I responded ; * but you see, my dear Beda, how in this world we may be deceived. And now I am anxious to see the humpbacked dwarf; for it is possible he may have something to tell us in reference to this Mr. Moss although I have utterly abandoned every hope of regaining a single fraction of that fortune whereof it would seem that by fatality’s self I wes to be deprived !” In the evening, at about seven o’clock, Jane Parks made her appearance. She again expressed the liveliest gratitude for the forbearance which I bad shown towards her father—whom however she merely looked upon as the plunderer of my fortune, while she remained in utter ignorance that he was an accomplice in the murder of my grandsire. “And now, Jane,” I said, “I wish to have a — eee ee 221 few explanations in reference to yourself. How long was it that you had until this day entertained so evil an opinion concerning me?” “ Listen while I enter into a few details,” an- swered Jane. “I must tell you that from the time that I left school I never was a particular favourite of my mother K I could not help here thinkiag in my own mind that Mrs. Parks might have conceived a dislike for her eldest daughter for the simple reason that there was an immense dissimilitude between her- self and all her brothers and sisters,—not merely in person, but also in disposition; for whereas Jane was good-looking, amiable, and well prin- cipled, the rest of the Parks tribe were (so far as I knew anything of them) ugly, ill-con- ditioned, bad tempered, and most unloveable beings. Now, inasmuch as in these respects they perfectly resembled their mother, it need not for a moment astonish the reader to conceive that she should bestow all her affection upon the tribe of offspring who so much resembled her, and all her antipathy upon the well-favoured exception. But after this digression I must suffer Jane Parks to continue the explanations which I did not posi- tively interrupt at the time by any remark from my lips. “TI never was a particular favourite of my mother,” she said; “although my father was sufficiently kind to me. My home was an un- happy one; and I longed to Jeaveit. I fell in with an old school-companion — Charlotte Tremaine : she asked me to go abroad with her tamily—an arrangement to which her father, who is very in- dulgent in most respects, at once assented. [ travelled with them for atwelvemonth. During this interval I formed the acquaintance of another family in which there were several young ladies, and whose name was Mountford. From them likewise I received an invitation to pass a few months in their company; and that period was happily spent at Brussels. Then I returned to the Tremaines at Paris; and I accompanied them into Italy, After our return to France, I again received an invitation from the Mountfords; and another period of some months was spent with them. They went out to India, and almost per- suaded me to accompany them ; but Charlotte Tremaine wrote to beg that I would return to her —and as I regarded her as the best friend I had in the world, | complicd with her wishes. I-re- mained with the Tremaines until summoned to England by wy father’s urgent letters in May last. You already know under what circumstances my father and I then met. Until that period I had always entertained a high opinion of you, Miss Percy ; and I was therefore grieved and asto- nished to learn from my father’s lips But I will not tell you what he said!” “JT think you had better tell me everything with candour, Jane,” I replied, “ in case there should still be anything for me to explain away.” “Sicce you desire it, your wishes shall be obeyed,” she answered: then in a slow and mourn- ful manner, sue went on to say, “My father assured me that you had proved the author of his ruin—that you had advanced claims to which you had no right—that you had availed yourself of legal quibbles under the advice of some unprin- cipled attorney Oh, Miss Percy! how can I COMA Cc OOO)|K == ag? ame ——— ~ ee ee ee -——-_ eee (SO)