Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 296: what you’re looking at

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ELLEN PERCY; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF AN ACTRESS. perate effort to release myself,—when a laugh in aj well-known voice burstabruptly upon my ears ; and the head which was now revealed from beneath the bed-clothes, was embellished with the long flowing hair of a woman. It was Melissa Harrison in whose arms I was thus clasped,—Melissa whose mocking laugh rang in my ears! The scream was therefore hushed at the very instant it was about to escape from the portals of the lips; and bya renewed vigorous effort I forced Melissa to loosen the arms that had fast encircled me. “How dare you perpetrate so infamous a trick ?” I demanded, sitting up in the bed at as great a distance from Melissa as possible, and at the same time dashing back the curtains so that the light of the fire was now more completely shed upon the scene. Melissa continued to laugh with a heartiness that was unmistakable; and I was so enraged ' that I could scarcely refrain from inflicting sum- mary chastisement upon her. * How dare you,’ 1 again demanded,— “ how dare you treat me thus, wicked creature that you are P” * Ah, I can well understand all this rage and fury!” ejaculated Melissa, now desisting from her laughter, and addressing me with a species of taunting significancy. “I almost pity your dis- appointment, my dear Ellen! These were not the arms in which you expected to be embraced!” “'Wretch!” I ejaculated, now springing from the couch; “ what mean these infamous insinua- tions?” “Ha! ha! my dear Ellen!” said Melissa, with the most insolent familiarity. ‘I have got eyes to see with, and a mind to understand what I do see. Ob, the virtuous Miss Trafford—the prude Miss Percy! Ah, I always thought the stillest waters ran the deepest; and now I have received a positive proof of it!” What did the vile young woman mean? Ah, an idea struck me! I remembered with what a malicious significancy she had coupled my name and that of Reginald Barron when she was in con- versation with the chambermaid: I was horrified and indignant—indeed I was almost boiling with rage to think that by the habit of judging others through the medium of her own depravities and profligacies, Melissa’s prurient imagination should have conceived such an outrageous notion in refer- ence to myself and that young man! “Your conduct is abominable!” I said, quiver- ing with rage from head to foot, as I stood in my night dress by the side of the bed. “ You know in your heart that what you dare imply is a base slander—a vile calumny! Never has my private conduct belied the impression which in public it has made !” “ No, no, this will not do, Miss Percy! this is too strong, my beautiful friend Ellen !” cried Me- lissa. “ Jt is no wonder that you succeed in keep- ing up your character when you play so cunning and deep a game. You have no lover in London; but that is no reason why you should not come to Petersfield for one! Yes, yes—you have friends in the town—you often visit the hotel—but you never stay long at atime! No, no! that wouldn’t do !—it would excite suspicion !” “Silence, base wretch!” I ejaculated, stamping my foot with a fury, a spite, and a feeling of | 283 hatred and vindictiveness such as I had never ex- perienced before towards any human creature. “Every word that falls from your lips is an abomi- nable falsehood! ‘Your language is the slime of the snail on the leaf of the lily! But I will not vindicate myself to you. Leave this chamber !— rise — depart, I insist upon it!—the room is mine !” “No wonder you are inarage!” said Melissa with the most provoking coolness; “ your disap- pointment is evidently dreadful! As for myself, I mean to remain here.” “What! remain in my room?” I exclaimed: oo I felt that my eyes were literally flashing re. “Yes—to be sure! It suits me. I have my own reasons :” and here Melissa again burst forth into a laugh which sounded in my ears like the malice-mirth of a fiend. No, Melissa!” I said: “no, infamous wretch that you are!—this is too much! Rise, I com- mand you! or I will pull the bell—I will raise an alarm , “ Now, don’t think, my dear friend,” interrupted the provoking wretch, “that you will frighten me with any such threat! I know better. You don’t dare doit. There now—am I right?” I was bewildered and almost stupefied. The vague idea was floating in my mind that Melissa knew of something which I did not—or that in her devilish malice she was prepared to put upon sume circumstance, otherwise trivial and innocent, a construction which might really be made to tell most seriously against my character. The image of Reginald Barron rose up in my mind:—how could I tell how much [ was compromised by him P Ah, that dream, as I had taken it to be !—that ap- pearance in my sitting-room !—was it a reality ? Had he indeed stolen thither when I slept ? had he been observed when stealthily beating a re- treat P and was it all this that had put such dread- ful ideas into Melissa’s head concerning me? Ah! and now as all these thoughts were striking me as it were blow upon blow in rapid succession, I suddenly recalled to mind the fact that Melissa was peeping forth from her door when I looked out of my own sitting-room; and thus I comprehended in an instant that if Reginald Barron had really paid that late visit to the hotel, his stealthy move- ments might have been perceived by Melissa. Yes, yes—it must have been so !—and hence that peculiar expression of mocking malignity and ironical significance which I had caught upon her ~ countenance ! All these remembrances and reflections trooped through my mind in as many seconds as I have taken minutes to record them. I was shocked, and almost appalled at the aspect which the whole affair was assuming: I saw that my character was at the mercy of a vile young woman, who, from the mere influence of her own depravities, was but too readily inclined to put the most abominable construction upon every circumstance that related to myself. Could I tarry there to reason with her P—dared I raise an alarm and summon the hotel domestics for the purpose of ejecting her from my chamber? No, no!—I dreaded a scene —I recoiled from the possibility of accusations which would receive a tremendous weight from circumstantial evidence: I was bewildered—Z felt ECORNICLOOOLK< (EO)