Ellen Percy; or, The Memoirs of an Actress — page 79: what you’re looking at

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

ae eaaeaaaaaacaaaacamaacaaaaasccactia 66 ELLEN PERCY; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF AN ACTRESS. ry eae Pe eee must have broken out in that very apartment; was distressing, because Beda’s information was where we were last night. Thence it spread to | confirmed in respect to old Gilderoy, who had be- both houses—and thence to the adjacent ones. Ij yond all doubt perished in the conflagration, It saw the ruins—no one could now suspect that, was aiso distressing because Mr. Moss had not there had been a place there which had served for | since been heard of. In respect to the mysteri- go solemn and fearful a scene as that whereof we | ousness of certain incidents, a few words of expla- were the witnesses! As for Mr. Parks, it is | nation will be sufficient on this head. Mr. Parks next to certain that he must have been one of the | had disappeared—but whether he had perished in victims; for you remember that he was to be de- | the fire, or having survived, had fled, was left en- tained a captive ‘: tirely to conjecture. His wife and children had “ And there was Mr. Moss!” I suddenly ex- | also disappeared: they had left their house at claimed, with a renewed apprehension. ‘“ You | about nine o’clock on that same morning, Mrs. remember that we left him there And yet let | Parks taking all her plate and valuables with her. us hope,” I hurriedly continued, “that he stayed | But this was not all. The sum of thirty-eight not with the poor old man !” thousand pounds which stood in Mr. Parks’s “Tf he be safe,” responded Beda, “he will be | name at the Bank of England, had been disposed certain to call very soon and make you aware of | of soon after the doors of that establishment the extent to which you may be a sufferer : for Oh! | opened: the business was transacted on behalf of I fear that when you last night told me that you | some-gentleman whom the stockbroker described were not sanguine, and that out of a hundred to my father, but with whose personal appearance chances there was at least one against you—I fear | my sire was altogether unacquainted. He had lest there must have been in your mind a mys- | given his name as Jenkinson; and only one thing terious presentiment of evil, though you compre- | was certain, which was that it was not Mr. Parks hended it not at the time !”’ himself, Mary Glentworth now entered my chamber; Thus stood the matter, My father was dis- and I told her everything which Beda had been | posed to think that Parks had survived the fire, relating. She was much shocked and horrified ; but that finding I was resolute in recovering my and we were still conyersing on the subject, when | rights, either by direct or indirect means, he had a double knock resounded through the house. I | deemed it prudent to flee the country. Not for an then recollected that I had written to my father to | instant did my father suspect that Mr. Moss had call upon me at ten o’clock on the morning of | played a treacherous game, and getting possession which I am speaking. of the Bank papers from Gilderoy, had used them I had hitherto told my sire nothing of all my | for his own purpose. For in the first place the proceedings in respect to Gilderoy; and in observ- | individual that gave the name of Jenkinson to the ing this secrecy 1 had more reasons than one. In stockbroker who transacted the business, answered the first place I feared lest his apprehensions of | not to the description of Mr. Moss, In the second treachery might prompt him to insist that I should | place the transfer-papers were filled up to the full not again laucch into such enterprises as the one | amount which Mr. Parks possessed in the Bank, that so seriously menaced me with danger at |and not for the sum of thirty-six thousand three Petersfield ; or at all events I knew that he would hundred pounds which on the previous night had insist upon accompanying me;—and haying a vivid | been assigned to me. in the third place the recollection of the painful scene which had taken | papers themselves were antedated three or four place on the occasion we were together in the/days. And in the fourth place there was the sud- presence of Mr. Parks, 1 had ever since deter- den disappearance of Mrs. Parks and the children, mined to avoid bringing my father into contact | with all the valuables which in their hurried flight with that man. But when everything should be | they could possibly carry away with them. These over in respect to Gilderoy’s proceedings, it was | circumstances, taken together, formed strong cor- my intention to reveal all those particulars to my | roborative evidence to acquit Moss of treachery, parent. For this reason, therefore, I had written | and to prove that Parks had by some uaaccount- to him on the preceding day, desiring him to | able means survived the conflagration. Still there come to me at about ten in the morning of the| was a degree of mystery enveloping tho affair, and ensuing one. He had now arrived in obedience to} which merely giving scope for conjecture, pre- that appointment. vented the mind from arriving at any certainty In a few minutes he and I were alone togetherin | upon the point. The only thing that seemed but the drawing-room ; and I told him everything that | too positive was that my evil star had continued in had occurred. He did not blame me for any rashness | the ascendant in reference to my rightful heritage, on my part in having again plunged into an en- | and that I was not merely deprived of it for the terprise where gipseys were concerned; because up | present, but that I must at length look upon it to a certain point all had progressed satisfactorily ; | as utterly gone for ever. My father was deeply and if there were now a failure it must be attri- | afflicted,—as were likewise Mary Glentworth and buted wholly and solely to the conflagration.| Beda, when these things were conmamunicated to That such a failure would indeed ensue, there was| them; but I reminded them that I had all along only too much reason to apprehend ; but my father | assured them I was not too sanguine, and that if I set out with the least possible delay to institute | failed to recover my just rights L should sit down — certain inquiries. with calm resignation under the misfortune, in- About three hours passed—and I remained in a | stead of uselessly repining at it. | state of considerable agitation until my father re-| The evening newspapers, in giving a description | turned. This was between one and two o’clock | of the fire, made not the slightest allusion to the in the afternoon; and the intelligence which he | fact that there had been anything peculiar con- brought was alike mysterious and distressing. 1t| nected with Gilderoy Hemp’s establishment. They RT a, ES | NS AS a TC TS EORNIELOOO_ KS 4 (EC)