Rosa Lambert — page 88: what you’re looking at

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

ty Pe ‘ —_— TH ROSA LAMBERT. 7 a SQ aD likeness to guide me to a conclusion: indeed, my|{ I hurried forward: the door was instantaneously protector so little resembled the object of my alarm, | closed behind me—and in that room I found that I gathered hope and encouragement from the | myself face to face with Horace Rockingham. circumstance,— endeavouring to persuade myself “Vile boy!” I exclaimed, now hurling at him ag that my fears had deceived me. a taunt the word boy which in other times I had At least half-an-hour elapsed while I was giving | been wont to apply to him in friendly familiarity : way to these conflicting thoughts; and during that “what means this treachery? Let me go hence:” interval I had not noticed which way the coach was | —and I was about to spring at him to hurl him proceeding. If I had looked forth from the win- | away from barring my progress towards the door. dow, it was only with the gaze of vacancy, and; But with lightning swiftness he placed his back not to observe any passing objects. But now I against it; and now I perceived that in each hand suddenly perceived that I was in altogether a | he held a pistol. I should add that it was a bed- strange neighbourhood. The hackney-coach was | chamber into which I had been thus inveigled,— proceeding along a narrow street, which I had | indifferently furnished, with a few trumpery pic- never beheld before—or at least of which I had no | tures hanging to the walls; and the aspect of the recollection. What could this mean? Ah! the | place conveyed an impression of grime and gloomi- thought struck me that perhaps the driver was | ness. taking me by some short cut towards Sloane Street,| “Stand back, Rosa—and hear me!” said Horace and that we were threading the district of Chelsea. | Rockinghain, speaking with accents of dogged des- Scarcely had this idea arisen in my mind, when it} perate resolution, while his naturally beautiful was followed by a reminiscence that startled me | countenance was pale and rigid with the same with terror. I had not sealed the envelope con- | feeling. taining the two letters left for Reginald Fortescue! “ Not a word, sir! not a syllable, vile boy, will The entrance of that old gentleman had interrupted | I listen to!” I exclaimed, my blood boiling with me at the very instant I was about to light the | indignation. “I know that you dare not use those taper for the purpose. Good heavens! if he were| weapons! Let me pass hence, or in another indeed my protector’s father, he might peruse those | moment I will fly at you with the fury of a letters, and he would thus obtain a complete know- | tigress !” ledge of his son’s connexion with me. Evenifhe| “Now, understand me well,” interrupted Ho- were not Sir Reginald Fortescue, but merely a/| race, actually levelling one of the pistols at me,— visitor, I nevertheless mistrusted him—he appeared | so that I shrank back in dismay. to be inquisitive—and if he read the contents of} “ Lower it—for God’s sake, lower it!’ I cried, that envelope, it was impossible to calculate what | almost frenzied with alarm: “and I will listen to mischief might ensue. I was almost distracted at} you! What do you require of me? wherefore my negligence in having left the packet unsealed | have you had me brought hither P” —or indeed, under the circumstances, in having} ‘“ Remain where you are—approach not an inch left it behind me at all. It was however too late | nearer,” rejoined Rockingham: “or by heaven! I to remedy the oversight. will do you a mischief:”—and as he thus spoke, Searcely had I come to this conclusion when the | he slowly lowered the pistol which he had levelled coach stopped in the middle of a street, nar- | at me: for he saw that I was transfixed in mortal rower and more dingy than that which had pre- | terror to the spot where he had bade me keep my viously struck my attention. I was now seriously | stand. “Now listen—as you have agreed to do,” alarmed, and was bewildered as to what it could | he went on to say; “and do not excite yourself all mean. The driver descended from his box: | more than you can help—do not attempt to rush and at the same instant the door of the house | upon me—or by heaven! I will defend myself. opened, in front of which he had stopped. A | Rosa,” he continued, accentuating his words firmly woman of about thirty,—pale, but not ill-looking, | and resolutely as he spoke, “you know there was —dressed in a rusty black silk gown, a cap with | a time when I loved you madly, and when I hesi- faded pink ribbons—and altogether with a some- | tated at nothing to gain possession of you. If what dirty appearance—came forth and said to | circumstances had not thrown you into my arms, the driver, “Is this Miss Lambert ?” I do really believe that I should have committed “What do you require of me? what do you, the madness of marrying you—so invincible was want?” I demanded quickly, as the coachman gaye | the passion with which you had inspired me! But an affirmative response to the woman’s question. | those circumstances did occur—and you became “It is not I who want you,” she at once an- mine. Mine however for only an hour! mine for swered: “it is your brother Cyril who is lying ‘the briefest possible space,—tantalizing, biti not here at the point of death.” satiating me! When we parted in the evening of “Cyril? good heavens!” were the words that that day, I bade you write to me to appoint a time burst from my lips, accompanied with a smothered , when you would meet me, that I might bear you Shriek: and all recollection of the mysterious— | away to the metropolis and possess you as wholly, nay, more, the suspicious manner in which I had solely mine. But you fled from Hawthorn; and been brought to this unknown place, vanished | the next I heard of you, was that you were the from my mind. The image which instantancously | mistress of another! You know all that passed filled it was that of my unhappy brother lying on | between us at your abode in Jermyn Street, when the bed of death. I sprang forth from the coach | you planted Lord Eveleigh in an adjacent room to —I rushed into the house: the woman quickly : overhear our discourse. Everything I told you lec the way up a narrow staircase—and on the | then was strictly true: for I little suspected that landing she stood aside, indicating an open door, there was a listener. I told you that I loved you and saying in atone mournfully respectful, “There, | still—I besought you to surrender yourself up to. Miss Lambert!” | me And it was true that I did love you—if is ——S Pe eae Se ee ee ee a te TS ee ee eee SS pee eS Te Re GoOmichdoo CS (0)