Rosa Lambert — page 385: what you’re looking at

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

— ee ee 374; CHAPTER Lil. THE YACHT. Wr arrived at Ramsgate,—taking merely Thomas and my maid with us, as well as our saddle-horses. We hired a furnished house in the best quarter ; and as I rambled with Ilderton upon the sands and on the pier, I could not help thinking of those scenes in which my cousin Sir John Haverstock and the Marquis of Belmore had played a part five years back, and which had led to consequences so hideous to myself. From the foolish wager which those two young men laid concerning me, had resulted the treacherous outrages whereof I became the victim; and I had subsequently seen both of them perish horribly before my eyes. One day, shortly after our arrival at Ramsgate, I was walking alone upon the pier, waiting for Iiderton to join me,—as he had gone to make inquiries relative to a yacht which he purposed to hire for the season,—when I beheld an invalid lady, who appeared to be in the last stage of con- sumption, being drawn in a moveable chair. A servant in a handsome livery was dragging it along; and that livery made me glance a second time at the invalid. Good heavens! was it pos- sible? Lady Lucia Calthorpe in that perishing condition! Where was all her classic sculptural beauty now? She was but the shade of her former self! Vain was it for her to court the gentle saline breeze in the hope—if she entertained it— of wooing back the health that was lost! But no: she could not—she did not cling to such a hope: the deep despondency of her look told but too plainly how well she knew the extent of the ravage which disease was making upon her vitals, and how painfully the conviction was forced upon her that she had but a short time to live. And there was I whom she had treated so cruelly,— there was I in the enjoyment of the most vigorous health, and still in all the glory of my own beauty, though my twenty-seventh year was almost num- bered. But my mirror showed me daily that if I thought fit to pass myself off as four or five years younger, I could safely do so without being sus- pected of an untruth: but Lucia,—she looked as if she were a dozen years older than I knew her to be! The recognition was not immediately mutual : for her eyes were bent down in the deep de- spondency of her thoughts. I knew that her child was in good health, and was thriving apace: for though I have not thought fit to interrupt the progress of my narrative for the purpose of men- tioning the fact, yet I had occasionally corresponded with Mrs. Evans (formerly my maid Frances, as the reader will remember) ; and I learnt from her how Lucia’s little girl was getting on. I had ascertained likewise that the proud patrician lady herself had never been near the village where her offspring was thus being reared; and indeed the little girl’s adopted parents still continued in complete ignorance who that unnatural mother was. The footman dragged the chair to the end of the pier ; and then Lady-Lucia made a sign for him to halt,—doubtless that she might enjoy the breeze which was now freshening somewhat. The livery -- os A SE EE SS ee TS FONT OCSS Oe OR eT, TEs OSSD ROSA LAMBERT. % servant retired to a little distance ; vanced in su and I now ad- : way that Lady Lucia caught sight of instant the colour rose to her pale che saw that her form quivered: and then I reproached myself for an act of cruelty to- wards one who was in a dying state. But I had not really intended to mortify her, nor to hurt her feelings by my presence: on the contrary, it was with a good motive that I thus threw myself in her way; for the idea had struck me that if by any accident we should get into conversation, I would plead with her for a recognition of her in- nocent though illegitimate offspring. She made a scarcely perceptible sign for me to approach her; and in a weak feeble voice —but with a sudden flush of mingled loathing and hatred in her eyes,—she said, “Are you here to triumph over me P” “No,” I responded, seriously and gravely: “whatever I may be, I think your ladyship of all persons in the world has had the best proof that IL possess not altogether a bad heart.” “Enough !” replied Lucia. “I am dying—lI have not many months, perhaps not weeks, to live ; and you will so far display your compassion as not to mention my name prejudicially to any persons whom you may know in this place.” “T am incapable of so malicious an action,” was my answer. “ Do I incur the risk of meeting his lordship your father here? or Lady Sudbury ?” “No,” answered Lucia. “ For more than two years my father has ceased to exist; and my aunt is illin London. I am here with my brother Lord Eveleigh. But pray retire now—and do not bear me malice if I ask that when we meet again, we pass each other as strangers.” “Tt shall be so, Lady Lucia,” I rejoined. “ But one word ere I leave you! The little Jemima— T sometimes hear of her—for F cannot help taking an interest in her ? : “ She is provided for,” interrupted the patrician lady coldly: “and that is sufficient.” “ No—it is not sufficient!” I said. “ There is a maternal feeling which ought to expand in your bosom “3 “ Now,” said Lucia, literally grinding her white teeth within her almost equally white lips, * you are persecuting me ii “Tf your ladyship takes in such a light my well-meant endeavour to move you on behalf cf your discarded, disowned child, I certainly can say no more ” and with these words I left her. I never saw her again: for at that very time her days—even her hours were numbered ; though I had suspected not that the closing scene was so near at hand—and she in fancy’s hope had given herself yet a few months more to live. But it ap- peared, from what I read in a local newspaper, that she had remained out rather too long on this particular occasion; and on her return to the Royal Hotel, where she was staying with her brother Lord ~Eveleigh and his wile, she was seized with a succession of fainting fits, which left her so weak that she never rallied again—and in less than forty-eight hours sank into the arms of death. I could not help thinking it strange that I should thus have been led by circumstances to see her when she was hovering upon the very verge of the tomb; and though I had little reason indeed to feel sympathy on her behalf, yet I could Gomilcboo cs