Joseph Wilmot, or, The Memoirs of a Man-Servant — page 80: what you’re looking at

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

’ JOSEPH WILMOT; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A MAN-SERVANT. similitude between one handwriting and another,” he continued, with more effrontery than he had as yet displayed throughout the interview, “you all in a moment jump to the conclusion that I have been instrumental in working you a mischief—and that I have corresponded with your uncle? It is really too preposterous !”—and with an air of in- dignation he tossed the fragment into the fire. “You would not have done that, my lord,” I said, speaking angrily, “if your conscience did not reproach you with the guilt of all that I have ad- vanced! Perhaps you will pretend to be ignorant that your worthy acolyte Mr. Lanover is in Fio- rence—or at least was yesterday P” “Janover in Florence?” ejaculated Eccleston, with a surprise apparently so sincere that I was staggered what to think. “On my soul I knew it not !—and to me,” he added, in a careless manner, “it is an affair of the utmost indifference ; for I tell you that I know nothing of your uncle beyond that interview with him at Delmar Manor when he came to claim you.” “ Well, my lord,” I said, “if you persevere in these denials I certainly have no means of com- pelling you to confess your past injustice towards me, nor to explain the motive. But perhaps the day may come when you will be sorry for having persecuted one who never could have possibly done you any harm. Ah, my lord! if for some inscruta- ble reason you intend to renew those persecutions, and if you have come with Lanover to Florence for that purpose, Ll must bid you beware: for the motive which formerly induced me to spare that man, has ceased to exist—and I vow most solemnly that if he dare practise his machinations against me henceforth, I will invoke the protection of the law of this country, or of any other in which I may find myself at the time.” “ Again I tell you, Joseph,” replied Lord EKc- cleston, “ that I bear patiently with you because I owe you a debt of gratitude for the salvation of her ladyship’s life: but by the mode in which you are addressing me, ycu are passing all bounds of decency—aud if 1 condescend once more to give you the most solemn and sacred assurance that I meditate no harm towards you, and that I was perfectly ignorant of Mr. Lanover’s presence in this city ? | “Enough, my lord!” I interrupted him: “nothing can efface. the suspicion—nay, the con- viction,—from my mind that the fragment which you have just burnt belonged to a letter written by your hand; and therefore henceforth I must judge you by your actions, and not by your words.” I then bowed slightly and distantly: and was turning towards the door—when it opened, and Lady Eccleston made her appearance. She was _ dressed in an elegant morning-wrapper; and her beauty was of that rich commanding splendour which I described when narrating the incident of my visit to the house in Manchester Square on the occasion that I called to place in his lordship’s hands the leaf of the Enfield register. Her lady- ship started on beholding me—at the same time bending upon my countenance a look which had the same peculiarity that I had noticed on the occasion just referred to—a look in which it was impossible to comprehend whether there were an expression of uneasiness, annoyance, or any other 67 feeling. But as if suddenly recollecting herself, she gave me her hand, saying in a soft voice, which was likewise tremulous with some strong emotion, “JT never had an opportunity of thanking you for your brave—your generous—your noble conduct in saving me from the fire !” “ If your ladyship considers the service deserv- ing of the slightest gratitude,’ I answered, firmly but respectfully, “the best manner in which you ean show it, is by inducing Lord Eccleston to per- secute me no more But I stopped short ; for her ladyship turned pale as death, and staggered as if about to fall. Mechanically I hastened to support her; and as she clung to me, she burst into tears,—exclaiming, “No, no, Joseph—fear nothing! fear nothing ! Did you not save my life? My God! it was you —you Joseph, who were my deliverer then!” Some such words as these she had uttered on the occasion referred to; and now she repeated them. They seemed strange indeed to my ears; and for an instant I knew not what sort of feeling it was which possessed me as I sustained her in my arms. “ Wherefore do you address me thus?” I ex- claimed. “Is it because your ladyship is no stranger to the bitter persecutions I have endured from your husband through the medium of the miscreant Lanover P—and does your conscience reproach you when you reflect that I—the perse- cuted but the unoffending—was ordained by heaven to pecome the saviour of your life ?” Lady Eccleston was weeping bitterly; she was as pale as death; and she fixed upon me a look so full of a profound agony—so woe-begone—and yet with some still softer feeling blending with it, that I knew not what to think. It appeared as if my brain were whirling, and that I was in the midst of a dream. And during the minute or two that this portion of the scene lasted, I was continuing to sustain her in my arms: for she clung to me in such a way that I felt she would fallif I let her 0. “Clara!” said a deep voice speaking close be- hind me: and startled by the peculiar accent—as if an accent of warning, and solemnly adjuring her to beware—in which her name was thus spoken, [ glanced quickly over my shoulder. Lord Eccleston was close behind me,—his countenance more ghastly pale than even that of his wife, and his looks full of a species of awful terror. When her name was thus thrown at her as it were in s0 warning a manner, she all of a sudden recovered her self-possession ; and abruptly disengaging her- self from my arms, she retreated a pace or two— exchanging with her husband looks that were doubtless significant enough for themselves, but utterly incomprehensible for me. I knew not whether to withdraw, or to remain and see whether they had anything more to say to me. There was within my soul the secret pre- sentiment that her ladyship longed to say some- thing—but yet for the life of me I could not con- jecture what. Evident enough was it that she stood in more or less terror of her husband, and | that she had unwittingly betrayed feelings the flow of which he had suddenly checked by breath- ing her name in a manner that was almost equi- ‘valent to the warning adjuration of the word “Beware!” The suspicion floated vaguely in my ne TE ES OOO) €5) (CO)