The Seamstress; or, The White Slave of England — page 118: what you’re looking at

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

THE SEAMSTRESS. 111 _ —— a — a —_———— right of doing what you think fit in reference to | to convince your lordship that the wealthy com- your Grace’s family. The entertainment, then, | moner Collinson was more powerful than the was given; and it was interrupted by a lamenta- | pauper Duke of Belmont. I accordingly insisted ble incident—the mysterious and unaccountable | upon modifying the conditions as already proposed; ferocity of Mr. Lavenham towards her Grace of | and I drew up the copy of that deed which I now Belmont.” hold in my hand. And this deed, my lord, stipu- “Proceed, sir—proceed,” exclaimed the Duke, | lates,” continued the attorney, now assuming the with passionate impetuosity. “That occurrence | cold, imperturbable, and measured tone which was has nothing to do with our present business.” characteristic not only of the man of business but % “Nothing, my lord,’ observed Collinson, in a | likewise of an implacable natwre,—“ this document tone of assent. “To continue my narrative, there- | stipulates, I say, that I should advance your Grace fore, with due regard to the succession of events | the sum of one hundred thousand pounds for a as they really took place, I must proceed to state | period of two years; that if the said sum were that on the evening alluded to—namely, the even- | repaid to me within the term, the amount of ing of the grand entertainment—Mr. Solomon and | twenty thousand pounds should be added by way his men levied a distress ‘at my suit in Belmont | of bonus for the accommodation; that so long as House. Your lordship despatched the Marquis of | the said sums of a hundred thousand pounds and Arden for me—and I came hither accordingly. | of twenty thousand pounds in addition, should Your Grace and I had a long conversation upon | remain unpaid, your lordship should not allow the position of your affairs; and allusion was made | either of your daughters to contract marriage, by your lordship to the proposition tendered by | under penalty of rendering yourself instantane- me some months previously. Your Grace sug-| ously liable for the two amounts just specified ; gested a modification of that proposal—to the | and that if the said sums were not repaid within effect that I should advance a hundred thousand | or aé the expiration of the two years, then I pounds upon your own security for two years, and | should have the privilege of making my election that if at the expiration of the term your lord-| between your Grace’s daughters and choosing ship should fail to return the amount with a cer- | either the Lady Clarissa or Lady Mary as my wife. tain interest, I should be entitled to the hand of | Those, my lord, were the stipulations which I your Grace’s elder daughter the Lady Clarissa. | committed to paper on the evening of 16th of Perceiving that your Grace was merely using me | January; 1844, and to which your Grace’s signa- as a tool, and that you hoped to be enabled to | ture was affixed on the following morning.” make a market, as it were, of your daughters by “?Nis true, Mr. Collinson—too true!” said the procuring for them wealthy husbands whose | wretched nobleman, in a dying voice. purses would assist in paying me off and dismiss- ing me with the contempt, scorn, and indignation —— which, in your aristocratic arrogance and pride, you believed me to haye richly merited by daring CHAPTER XXXvV, to aspire to the honour of becoming your Grace’s son-in-law a THE CHOICE,—THE POCKET-BOOK. “Wherefore these harsh terms, Mr. Collinson ? wherefore these sarcasms? wherefore this vin- | THERE was now a long pause in the saloon—dur- dictive tone?” demanded the Duke, in a voice ing which the young Marquis of Arden in the con- that trembled and faltered with mingled dismay | servatory obtained leisure for breathing and think- and anger. ing: for if may be almost literally affirmed that “ Because your lordship, I repeat, hoped to be | throughout the preceding colloquy between his able to use me as a tool and instrument,” replied | father and the lawyer, his powers of respiration Collinson, with a stronger accentuation than he | had remained suspended and all his faculties of was wont to adopt; “and because your plan | thought were absorbed in the fearful interest of was to make the usurer serve your temporary | the revelations which he had thus overheard. purpose, and then dismiss him with ignominy.| Fearful interest, forsooth! Oh! the reader can Does your Grace fancy that I did not see through | perhaps imagine all the amazement—all the dismay all this?—or does your lordship suppose that I | —all the consternation which piled their erushing eared not for being covered with ridicule so long | weight upon the young man’s soul as those stu- as I got a large interest for my money !” pendous disclosures met his ears. For it was “ But I frankly explained myself on that head,” | dreadful—Oh! it was dreadful for a son thus to said the Duke, “in reply to a question which you | listen to the damning facts which proved his own put tome, I told you, if I remember aright, that | father a villain,—a villain who was not only black- I calculated upon the marriage of my daughter to | ened with the hideous crimes which had already repay you st come to the knowledge of that son, but who was “Yes—but you did not tell me,” interrupted | now convicted of having entered into the most de- Collinson, emphatically, “ that you looked forward | grading, derogatory, scandalous negotiations and with eager hope to the time when you should be | conditions relative to his own daughters ! enabled, as you thought, to say, ‘There! take your| And it was this appalling consternation—this money, fellow, and be off!’—But I read all that | crushing wonderment—this blank dismay which was passing in your mind; and I was resolved not | had bound Charles to the spot where he had to become the mere tool of your lordship’s tempo- | concealed himself in the hot-house: it was this rary purposes. I therefore resolved to meet your | stunning feeling yhich had sealed his lips and Grace’s artifice by counter-artifice, and to put my | made his limbs rigid as those of a statue—thus hopes and aspirations in opposition to yowrs. In| preventing him from breaking forth from his plain terms, I was resolved not only to become | hiding-place and bursting into the saloon to cover your Grace’s son-in-law in the long run, but also | his father with reproaches and inflict condign chas- —_—_—_~ ECORMMICIOOKS»EO© ae s ¥ “i. 4