Rosa Lambert — page 357: what you’re looking at

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

eee ~— —_——— - - — +. _ -—--— EE ERE en eee EE | OE om NT, ooo 346 ROSA LAMBERT, ere ae — -_-— _ — another savage blow, when I wrested it from his , his opinion that Grayson must have left Newport, grasp—broke it in halves across my knee—and | Nevertheless, for a few days afterwards I still tossing the pieces at him, said, “ Now understand | kept as much as possible on my guard,—until my me well, Sir James! the very next time you dare | apprehension gradually wore off; and ceasing to attempt to strike me, instead of breaking your | think of the miscreant, I returned to my wonted stick, I will use it without mercy across your own | habits. shoulders Unless, indeed,” I immediately| Lord Ilderton had again called; and on this added, “ you desire us to separate; which, under | second occasion he extended his visit somewhat. all circumstances, will perhaps be the best.” He improved upon acquaintance; and therefore it For nearly a minute Sir James Thornley was so | must be supposed that I found him very agreeable astounded and amazed at my conduct, that he | indeed, because even at our first encounter I enter. could not give utterance to a word: he turned as | tained a favourable opinion of him, I gleaned, in pale as death, and gazed upon me with a sort of | the course Of conversation, that in respect to pecu- stupefaction. But when I spoke of a separation, | niary circumstances he was independent of his he entreated my pardon in the most piteous terms; | father, a deceased uncle having left him an income and I was by no means unwilling to concede him | of six thousand a-year, upon the possession of my forgiveness—for I hoped and believed that I \ whieh he entered when coming of age, a year had effectually cured him of his cowardly habit of previous to our thus becoming acquainted. He using his stick. The scene excited him so much had a yacht at Ryde, as well as two or three as to bring on an attack of his old complaint; and | horses; and it was at the house of a rich aunt on the following day he had to keep his bed. At | that be was now staying. He did not detail all about two o’clock on this day young Lord Ilderton | these particulars in a pointed manner—much less called; and I received him in the sumptuously in any vaunting spirit: but they transpired amidst furnished drawing-room. I was perfectly well | what may be termed the accidents of conversa- convinced that he must have made inquiries con- | tion. cerning me before he thus arrived at the house;; About a fortnight had elapsed from the date of and moreover I was past that point at which I | the little circumstance in respect to Toby Grayson; could blush at receiving one who eould scarcely | and one day, when riding out on horseback, at- fail to know that I was living in an equivocal | tended as usual by the groom, I proceeded in the position. I found him to be a very agreeable direction of Ryde, Perhaps if I were to confess young man, with a most amiable suavity of man- | the truth, if was not altogether without the hope ner, but with no lack of intelligence. He informed | of meeting young Lord Ilderton: for his conversa- me that he was passing a few weeks at Ryde with | tion pleased me—and almost any society was a an elderly maiden relative who dwelt there; and | relief after that of the old nabob. I was riding on taking his leave, he requested permission to call | slowly along a narrow lane, where the trees and again when he happened to be at Newport. I | hedges on either side were putting forth the ver- gave my assent: for I had made up my mind | dure of spring,—and the groom was about sixty that if Sir James Thornley objected to any of my | yards in the rear,—when all of a sudden the clat- proceedings, or attempted to coerce ne in any way, , tering of another horse’s hoofs coming from behind { would assume a threatening demeanour and carry | was followed by a loud ery; and glancing over my matters with a high hand, which I now found to be | shoulder, I perceived that the groom had been the only fashion to deal with him. struck off his horse by the individual who had so On the following day I was walking through | abruptly galloped up to overtake him. Newport by myself, when I suddenly beheld a| “Toby Grayson ’? JT mentally ejaculated; and man, dressed as a coal-heaver, with a blackened | at the same instant urged my horse into its swiftest face, and a large overlapping cap, turn round a | gallop. corner as he caught a glimpse of me; and the Whatever might have happened to the groom, I conviction flashed to my mind that this was none | could not possibly help; and for me to linger there other than my old enemy, Mr. Tobias Grayson. | in order to ascertain, would have been madly to Whether he knew that 1 was living in that neigh- | throw myself into the power of a miscreant whom pourhood, or whether he was merely paying a| 1 knew to be capable of any atrocity. Away there- {lying visit to the place, I of course could not tell: fore I galloped: but with the speed of lightning but that he would adopt some treacherous proceed- | was he on my track. It was unfortunately in a ing or even attempt some violence with regard to secluded place that this adventure occurred ; and mie, I was full well assured. I knew that the | there were no habitations near. In less than a man was bitterly vindictive ; and moreover that | minute I found that he was close upon me: I having successfully preyed upon me so often, he screamed out for help, in the hope that my voice would be encouraged to make the attempt again. | would reach the ears of any labourers who might Accordingly, after a very few minutes’ delibera- | happen to be working in the adjacent fields. tion with myself, I returned home and told Sir | Those cries, as well as the sounds of the horse’s James Thornley sufficient to induce him to send | hoofs in pursuit, frightened my own steed: I lost foy the chief constable of the town, to whom we} my balance, and was thrown upon a bank. Tor- communicated the fact that the notorious male- | tunately however I was altogether uninjured, and factor Toby Grayson had been seen in a particular | was instantancously on my feet—but only to be ~ disguise at Newport. ‘Iwo or three days passed ; | caught in the arms of Toby Grayson, who being and I was careful not to walk alone in the grounds, | abreast of me at the very moment I was thrown, | nor yet to go out riding on horseback. ‘The head- | sprang from his horse and thus seized upon me. | constable ealled again, to inform us that he had | He was dressed lke a substantial farmer, with — been utterly unable to obtgin any trace of the | corduroy breeches and top-boots: his usually bushy villain’s whereabouts ; and he confidently expressed | whiskers were all shaven off: he had a fine florid — ee nt as EComicbooks.cor 6