Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 345: what you’re looking at

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

— ee Ce 332 — RN a al —_—-- ELLEN PERCY; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF AN ACTRESS, The house only consisted of two floors—it was a mere cottage: and it was in the back room of the upper floor that I found the object of my search —the woman Sturton. Good heavens! what a spectacle met my view! A wretched creature, haggard and emaciated—with three miserable- looking children, more than half naked, squalid, lean, with famine written upon their counte- nances,—a room utterly denuded of furniture, with some straw and rags on the floor,—this was the shocking tableau that met my vision! The appearance of a well-dressed lady in the abode of poverty, naturally excites some hopeful ‘ idea in the minds of its wretched inmates; and thus the three children gave vent to ejaculations of joy—and the mother hastening forward, said, “Oh, ma’am! if you are come to assist us, God bless you! for we are starving!” The tears started into my eyes: I was almost choked with the emotions which appeared to risa up into my very throat; and thus I could not im- mediately speak. Such a picture of wretchedness —of gaunt, stark, squalid, hideous, famine-stricken misery—had never before met my eyes!—a misery which had worn away the flesh down to the very bones—a misery which showed the ribs through the skin of the starving childrea—a misery which gave an expression of wolfish hunger to their countenances ! “My poor woman,” I at length said, “I am come to assist you. Have you heard that anybody was inquiring after you?” “No, ma’am. But who are you that you take any interest in such poor forlorn wretches as we are? Oh! if you had not come, this very day should we have returned to the workhouse! Yes! we were there once before but Oh, the horrors of that place!” “Well, well,’ I said, “ you shall not go back to the workhouse—at least if I find you in any way worthy of the relief that I propose to offer. But no more for the present! Here—take this money —procure foed for yourself and your children— and tell me how long it will be before you can presently render yourself decent and respectable 80 as to come to me at the hotel where I am stay- ing ?” I placed five sovereigns in the hands of the Woman ; and it was a cry—almost a shriek of joy which burst forth from her lips when she beheld the gold. The three childrem instinctively fell upon their knees; and altogether the spectacle was a most affecting one. But, to be brief, Mrs. Sturton informed me that she had some decent apparel, which she could presently redeem from the pawnbroking establishment where it was pledged, and that she would be with me in a couple of hours at the hotel. I quitted the house ; and I was slowly retracing my way towards the hotel—mournfully reflecting upon the scene of ineffable misery which I had been contemplating—when I suddenly heard my name mentioned by an individual who stopped short as I was about to pass him when turning the angle of a street. “ Ah, Miss Percy !” he ejaculated: “is ié pos- sible that I behold you in this part of the world ?” I at once recognised him: it was Viscount Ra- venscliffe who had thus stopped short on beholding a see =. _ re ee es —— eee ee me. The reader will recollect that we had formerly met at Willowbridge, on the melancholy occasion when his brother Lord Frederick committed eui- cide in so dreadful and extraordinary a manner. That was precisely six months previous to the date of which I am now writing; and the Viscount was stillin mourning. I have on a former occa- sion observed that he was by no means good- looking—that he was short in stature and of in- significant personal appearance—but that he habi- tually had an air of cold insolent hauteur, with a tinge of coxcombry in his manner—and that he was very fond of using a quizzing-glass, which he would keep for some minutes at a time stuck in the socket of his eye. Towards me he was how- ever now most courteous and polite ; for be it re- membered that the closing scene at Willowbridge bad humiliated him and had almost brought him to his knees in the presence of Juliet and myself, when he found how completely the honour of his deceased brother’s name was in our keeping. ** And is it indeed possible,” he repeated, after I had returned his salutation, “ that I meet you, Miss Percy, in this quarter of the world ?” “ And wherefore,” I asked, with a smile, “ should I not have business at Stafford as well as other people ? But my visit hither is merely a flying one: I am staying in the neighbourhood In- deed I believe that the family is somewhat con- nected with your own " “ Ah! do you mean the Tremaines ?” ejacu- lated the Viscount. “ Yes—I am staying at Tremaine Hall,” was my rejoinder. “ And a beautiful place it is,” resumed Viscount Ravenscliffe. ‘‘ Of course you are aware that our family-seat of Carshalton is only about thirty miles from here—in the neighbourhood of Emble- don ?” “TIT knew that your family’s country-seat, my lord, could not be very far distant, inasmuch as Staffordshire and Warwickshire join: but I was not aware it was quite so near as I now learn it to be.” “ And so the Tremaines have returned to*their own ancestral home ?” ejaculated the Viscount. “ Ah! what disputes, quarrellings, and lawsuits has that family seen in its time! And our’s like- wise—and the Wakefields also r “The Wakoefields ?”’ I ejaculated, in astonish- ment at the sudden mentioning of the name. “Oh, yes,” answered the Viscount: “the Tre- maines, the Ravenscliffes, and the Wakefields were all more or less connected some half-century or century ago. But relationship dies out, as it were ~ “ What Wakefields were those to whom you allude ?” I asked. . “T really can scarcely tell you, Miss Percy,” replied the Viscount: “ many long years have passed since the Wakefields have been enab'ed to claim any kinship with us, or to have their names mentioned in Lodge’s Peerage as being connected with even the most distant branches of the Car- shalton family. But I have heard that there was atime when all three families—the Tremaines, the Wakefields, and the Ravenscliffes—were at loggerheads to dispute the Carshalton peerage ; and then, as this point could be no longer ques- tioned, the grounds of the quarrel were shitted, ee ee Gomichboo (E(o)