Mary Price, etc

Front matter

MARY PRICE; OB, THE MEMOIRS OF A SERVANT-MAID. BY G. W. M. REYNOLDS, lOTHOB OP THE PIRST AND SECOND SEBIES OP "THB MYSTERIES OP LONDON," "THI MYETEEIES OP THE COUBT OP LONDON," "THE COBAX ISLAND," "THE BKONZE STATUE,' " PAUST," " THB NECROMANCER," " THE MASSACBE 01 GLENCOE," " THE BEAMSTIUba," "POP! JOAN," "THB PIXY," " BOBBBT MACAIBE," &C, A.., &C. 1LLUSTKATED WITH FIFTY-TWO ENGRAVINGS BY F. GILBERT. VOL. I. LONDON: JOHN DICKS, 313, STRAND; AND ALL BOOKSELLERS. INDEX TO THE ENGRAVINGS- No. 1. Mad Tommy and the Orphans See Pv/e 9 2. Mary Price at the Twisden.. 11 3. The Young Officers and Mary Price 23 4. Mrs. Whitfield's Parlour . • , 32 5. The Ale-house ....*. 3fi (I. Eustace and Mary ... 45 7. Mr. Messiter, the Bulldog, and Sawbridge . ..... 50 H. Lord and Lady Harlesdon 61 9. The Gipsies and Jemima 72 10.

The Receiving House 78 11. The Blackamoors 88 12. The Restored Child 91 13. The Arbour 99 14. Mary and the Rivals 1 01 15. Mary and Lady Harlesdon Hfi 16. Ellen Kirkland 128 17. Leonard Percival a Prisoner ... 129 18. Mary, Mrs. Ferguson, and Anne . ... . 144 19. Mary at the Cottage .... 152 20. Sir Aubrey and Mary ... 160 21. Mary and the Two Parsons . 16s1 22. The Public-house ... .... .176 23. Mary at Mrs. Calder's . . ■ 180 24. After the Trial ... . - .Jo. 25. Miss Nibkins' Establishment • 1M? 26. Mary, her Brother, and Mr. Tomliuson. . . . 205 27. The Gipsies' House in Saint Giles's . . • • 21b' 28. Mary and the Lawyer ... . • 223 29. Mary and her Sisters . . • 227 30. The Treasure-seekers .... 23< 31. The Count and Conntes. ut> Montville 241 32. The Somnambulist .... 251 33. Mary and Lady Harlesdon again 207 34.

Mr. Appleton and Mary at Canterbury ... . 270 35. Eustace and Mary .28) 36. The Bull Family 285 37. Mary and the Mis9 Bulls 294 38. Lady Wilberton and Mary 302 39. The Minister's Pocket-book . 306 40. Mary and Miss Bull . . 315 41. Another Interview between Mary and Lady Harlesdon . . . 323 42. Othello and Desdemona 330 43. Palmistry ... 339 44. Sir Aubrey, Lord Harlesdon, _> ' V -ry ..... 34« 45. Mary in the Nursery 46. The Conversation Overheard 3*>7 47. Mary and Mr. Cleveland . . 376 48. Captain Tollemache 381 49. Cleveland and Selina 391 60 Lady Davenant and Mary. 3y7 61. Mary and Jane 4f)8 62. The Miss Kingston?. [Bv a mistake of the Artist, this picture illustrates o. 2 in Vol H.] INDEX TO VOL. I. Chapter I. The Mother's Secret ....... , l „ II. The Letter with the Black Seal 4 „ III.

Chapter II. The Letteb With The Black Seal

I was now a little past fifteen year? of age. Robert was over seventeen ; and though bearing a strong resemblance to our mother, was yet not a good looking lad. There was something sinister in his looks; and when he was speaking, an unpleasant feeling would arise in the mind that he was not telling the truth— or at all events that duplicity and artifice were in his language and his intentions. Not that he had done anything at all serious in the way of misconduct : but, as I bave before stated, he manifested a great disregard for truth ; and I may now add that he was neither so industrious nor so steady as he ought to bave been. Our father had got him apprenticed to Mr. Matthews, the master for whom he worked ; but amongst the journeymen in the same employ, they were not all .0 steady and regular in their habits as our father ; and unfortunately Robert preferred the company that was least calculated to benefit him.

My mother frequently remonstrated with him,— pointing out. the value of good habits and an honest charac ter as evidenced in the example of our father ; and showing how irregularity of conduct was certain to undergo opprobrium and reproach, as in the case as two very wicked fellows, named Bulldog and 'iawbridge, who were the scandal and nuisance As for the youngest of us all, little Jane — then nice years old — she was a fat, chubby, blue-eyed, brown-haired girl, with a certain distant resemblance to the mother, but with all the distinctive features resembling those of the father. Good-natured, gay, and happy, she was always the darting (as the youngest, it was her right to be) of the family ; and it is impossible to conceive a greater contrast be tween two sisters than that which existed between this cherub-looking Jane and the serious, selfish, vain, and prideful Sarah — for all this my sister assuredly was, even in her girlhood!

And now that I have so fully introduced my parents and my brothers and sisters to the reader, perhaps he will wish to know something concerning myself. At the age and under the circumstances which I am thus penning my autobiography, it may be permitted for me to say, without the imputation of vanity, that I was considered to be a good-looking girl, in the same style as my mother and sister Sarah: that hi, with dark hair and eye., very litbe colour upon tbe cheeks, and somewhat delicate '«a- MART PRICE ; OR, THE MEMOIRS Of A SERVANT-MAID 5 tures. 1 have already hinted that through the care of our mother we possessed good teeth ; and I was not an exception to this rule. As for my stature, when I grew up to womanhood I was what is termed Mad Tommy handed her a letter sealed with black wax, and then quickly turning on his heel, darted away, shouting, "Not likely, not likely that I should go taking anything for my trouble— uot likely, not likely 1" above the middle height and the least thing inclined to be stout But enough, at least for the present, of any details relative to my personal appearance; and I now resume tbe thread of my narrative.

One day— and never, never can I cease thinking cf that memorable day — William, Sarah, Jane, ami myself were seated with our mother in the neat little parlour of our cottage. It was about eleven in the forenoon; and William was reading while the rest of us were engaged with the needle. Suddenly we heard my brother Robert's voice in altercation with someone outside the dwelling: and listening, the words " Give me the letter, I »ay 1" fell upon our ears. My mother immediately gave vent to an ejaculation as if struck by a sudden idea; and flinging down her work, she hastened out of the cottage. It was __a_me_--_me ; and the front door stood open. I looked round without moving from my seat : for I felt a presentiment that this was some new phase in the history of my mother's secret — and not for worlds would I have given her pain by any display of impertinent curiosity.

I saw Robert, in his working-dress and witb his brown paper cap upon his head, holding by the collar a short, thick-set, half-loutish, half-idiot youth who did odd jobs about the outskirts of the town and was known as Mad Tommy. This individual, who was about twenty years of age and dressed in coarse, dirty, and patched corduroy, was gazing with an air of ttoiid and yet savage defiance at Robert, who again shook him violently, crying, '* Then you won't give me the letter — eh ? But here's mother herself!" Meanwhile my mother, having taken the letter in her haud, hastily thrust it into her bosom; and theu looking up at Robert, she said in a low tremulous voice, " What brought you home from your work before the usual hour ?" "1 came to fetch something that father wants," was the answer. " But what is the matter with you, mother?" he inquired, looking so fixedly at her that I thought to myself thi3 was the most cruel display of inconsiderateness aud want of feeling on his part towards her, that I had ever yet observed.

"What is the matter with me?" she repeated ia her own sweet soft voice, but which now seemed to bear in its tone the vibrations wliich came direct from her heart's core. "Nothing — nothing is tho matter with me:" — then, afcer a few moments' hesitation and speaking with a visible effort as if conquering a repugnauce, she said, " This letter, Robert, is from a dear friend, but one whom your father likes not. It will be doing me a service not to notice before him that I have received this letter." " I am sure 1 don't want to betray your secrets, mother, if you will keep mine," said Robert, in . rude and dogged manner. " Therefore, if you do happen to see me go into the Three Bells again, mind you don't tell father of it, as you did last Saturday night— or else I shall let the cat out of the bag in return about your letter, so as to have tit for tat."

" Robert— this from you.r' exclaimed — nay, al most shrieked our mother; and I saw her step back a pace or two as if struck with a sudden blow of a hammer : then she stood gazing in the stupor of amazement at Robert, as if she dared not believe and yet knew not how to doubt the evidence of her own ears and eyes. "For shame, Robert — unhand the poor fellow," she said; "why did you molest him ?" "I met him here at the gate," replied Robert sullenly, "and asked bim what he wanted. He said he had got a letter for you. I told him to give it to me, and I would take it in to you. He declared he would do no such thing — that he would not trust me with it " "Lor, mother, dsn't be fooli-h now," he said with a look of indifference, slightly tainted with scorn : " we don't want any sentimental nousense now.

A bargain's a bargain : you receive your letters on the sly, and I'd go to the public-house on the sly — but we won't tell ef each other." " No more I would," exclaimed Mad Teramy : " not likely — not likely 1" and he rubbed bis hands, at the same time giving a cunning leer at my mother. " Enough, enough I" she hastened to exclaim in "Good heavens 1 is it possible you can speak to me thus?" exclaimed my poor mother, joining her hands in despair. a tone and manner which I conld not help ob serving were both alike full of trepidation: but suddenly assuming a conciliatory and caressing voice, she said, " Now, Mr. Thomas, what have you got for me? Give it to me; and here is something for you;"— at the same time taking a small silver coin from her pocket. But Robert took no farther notice of her : on the contrary, he entered the house, procured some tool which he had come to fetch, and was issuing forth again, when his mother, who was now stand ing upon the threshold, said to bim in a low plain tive voice, "Have you forgotten, Robert, all the tenderness I have had for you— all the love I have shown you — all the devoted care I have bestowed upon yen ?"

" No, no — not likely, not likely 1" exclaimed the idiot, shaking his head with a look of what may be termed vacant knowingness. "The gentleman told me to be sure and not take anything for bringing np the letter, and also to mind and not drop it in the gutter— or forget it ' " Well, well, give it to me," said my poor mother, evidently suffering the excruciation of a strange and wild uneasiness, which was nevertheless all the more poignant because she sought to conceal it ; for the eye of her eldest son — then a youth of past seventeen and keenly alive to suspicion — was fixed upon her witb a gaze full of doubt and " Well, I don't deny it," he answered in a voice of positive brutality : "but I am oo longer o child — I am a young man now, and I mean to let you know it too. So I shall go to the Three Bells when I choose and smoke my pipe ; and you will tell father that you sent me on au errand, lf you don't, then out shall come all about the gentleman looking iu at the window three or four years ego, and your going out to him — then this letter busi. mistrust. ness now.

MARY PRIOE ; OR, THE MEMOIRS OP A SERVANT-MAID. form of her whom he loved. " Open your eyes — speak— look up at me— say that you know me O heavens I give some sign of life— depart not thus — 'tis I, your husband, who implore you to look up at him I"— ard then my distracted father covered the marble countenance of my mother with his wild and passionate caresses. "Robert, Kabert, what have you done?" I ex claimed, darting from my seat as I beheld our poor mother suddenly stagger on the threshold of the door; and the next moment, just as I was about to extend my arms to save her, she fell headlong. Her brow came in violent contact with the little redbrick pathway leading from the front door to the wicket-gate of the garden— and there she lay Benseless. All was now horror and confusion in the house.

Robert, doubtless conscience-stricken for what he had done, hastily helped me to raise her: but poor William, springing forward, pushed his elder brother aside, exclaiming bitterly, "O Robert, Robert I it is you who have done this."— and then, while the tears poured down the generous boy's countenance, he assisted me to convey our still senseless parent into the bedroom, Sarab and little Jane following us in consternation. "Father, dear father," I ventured to murmur, halt mad with grief though I was, "this is not the way to recover herl Let me continue to bathe her forehead until Mr. Collins comes Ah I thank heaven, here he is I" For at the moment William returned, accompanied by the worthy and kind-hearted surgeon, who immediately proceeded to open a vein in my mother's arm. A dead silence now prevailed in the room — a silence awful iu the suspense where with it seemed to be laden.

And there did we all stand around, with gaze intently, fixed upon the surgeon's countenince — watching each feature, each line, each lineament, for the slightest expression that might give some assurance of hope. For myself, I know that my very breath was suspended: my heart had as it were ceased to beat— the blood felt as if it were suddenly struck stagnant in my veins— yet not frozen, for it burnt with a torturing sensation. Tnere was a large contusion on my mother's forehead, and an abrasion of tho skin : but no blood came. I bathed her head with vinegar-aiid water, and still life returned not. I tore open her dress, from which the letter fell at my feet : but fhere 1 let it lay, having no thought for anything save my dear beloved parent. Life was not extinct — for her lips quivered slightly; and a pulsation, feeble though it were, was felt at the heart.

Vainly however did I give her air — vainly continue to bathe her head and hold vinegar to her nostrils : she still lay senseless upon the couch. William was well nigh distracted; and yet he vented no more reproaches upon Robert, who stood by evi dently a prey to remorse. Poor little Jane wa. now crying bitterly, while Sarah endeavoured to cousulo her. As for my own feelings, they can be better imagined than described— although, as I have ere now said, I had no leisure for thought : yet it was in a state bordering upon frenzied ex citement tbat I continued my attentions towards thc still inanimate form of my mother. "There is hope," said Mr. Collins, at length breaking the awful silence : "indeed, there is every hope," he added, as the blood flowed freely from my mother's arm : and in less than another minute she began to give short quick gaspings, as if returning animation was accompanied by a sense of pain.

In a few minutes more she opened her eyes feebly and slowly : but they beamed not with the rays of consciousness, though with the light of life — and she almost immediately closed them again. Shudderingly I whispered a brief and hurried query in the doctor's ear. "You must go for Mr. Collins," said I, meaning the surgeon : and away sped both William and Robert at the same time. " Will she live ?" I asked. "I hope so— I believe so," he replied emphatically. "Life is returning quickly:" then after another interval of a few minutes, although the patient's eyes still remained closed, he gave still more cheering and positive assurances. About ten minutes now elapsed, and still my mo ther continued insensible. Yet I knew she was not dead, because there was an occasioual twitching of the lip nnd quivering of the closed eyelids.

I could also feel the beating of her heart, but feeble as that cf an infant. Forgotten was the letter — the unfortunate letter— which lay at my feet: but through the tumultuous crowd of my agonizing ideas, penetrated as it were distinct and poignant tho sense of all the heartless cruelty of Robert's conduct towards that parent who had loved him so tenderly and so well. " Tell me, Mary," said my father, now drawing me a httle aside and speaking in a low whisper, " how this happened. Robert gave me some hur ried particulars ; but I was too excited to under stand them. I however recollect that he said something about having had a few words with bis mother ahout a letter; but he begged me not to say anything about it before her Ahl what is this?"— an 1 advancing towards the bed, my faiher stooped down and picked up the letter oa which his eyes had that moment settled.

" Father, you will not read it ?" I said, laying my hand upou his as he was about to break the black seal : for at the in3tant a presentiment of evil pierced through me like an electric shock from head to foot, and 1 believe that I must have looked with deprecating and frightened regard up into his countenance. At the expiration of the ten minutes Robert came back accompanied by our father, who was already dreadfully agitated at the tidings he had heard, and who irow became almost frantic when he found that his beloved wife was still wrapt in a trance that so near approximated nnto that of death. "Whore is William? Is Mr. C.llins coming?" I demanded, in the intense ha.tc of anguished ex citement. "Why not, Mary ?" he asked with a sort of half smile, as if the bare idea of not opening the letter were too ridiculous to be entertained seriously.

" Your mother and I have no secrets from each other— we never have had— and you may depend upon it that she would have shown me this letter " William is gone for him," answered Robert ; 'while I went and fetched father." " O God 1 spare my dear, dear wife !" was now tho cry which went thrilling y forth from the lips as my father as he bent over the still inanimate MART PRIOE ; OS, TEE MEMOIRS OF A SERVANT-MAID. 7 ofher own accord the moment I returned, if this ud occurrence bad not taken place :" — and he glanced towards the bed. forth from the oottage, rushed towards the fields. I was on the point of flyini; after him ; and Wil liam with the same intent had already bounded towards the door, when my mother suddenly started up in the couch, opened her eyes, and gazed wildly around her. Whether it was that by some subtle and unknown influence communicating between mind and mind without the aid of voice and ears, she had beeu made to comprehend what had just taken place on the part of her husband or whether her abrupt' return to life at this very moment was a mere coincidence, I knew uot: but certain it is that it added to the mystic horror o" the scene.

I felt assured that my mother would not have shown him the letter: but I dared not say so. Nor could I any farther urge him not to open it. No — nor was there even time to do so, if I had been disposed; for the seal was already breaking between bis fingers — the letter was unfolding — and now, stepping towards the window, he began to run his eyes over its contents. Heaves. I how can I find words to describe the scene which followed? — how can I describe the awful change thatsuddenly seized upon my father? What words are stroug enough to pourtray the wild look of incredulity which he first flung upou that letter— theu the expression of profound horror into which this look deepened the next moment — then the blank, the unutterable despair which succeeded, rendering his countenance wh/te and ghastly, making bim stagger back and press his hand upon his heart, while the ejaculation of " O God 1 O God 1" rose to his lips, but fell faint and low therefrom.

In the wild quick glance which she flung around .he appeared to embrace all the features of the group, while thu presence of the surgeon and her own still bleeding _.rm at once made her aware of the danger through which she had passed. But while the first sense of all this must have been thrilling in the brain, her eyes fell on the letter which her husband had left lying on the bed: and the moment she saw that it was open, she fell back upon the pillow — gave one wild thrilling shriek of mortal agony — aud the next moment became still as death. All this dreadful scene — all these quick tran sitions of mental agony — iook place in less than half a minute, while I was standing by paralysed with dread horror. Suddenly inspired with the energy of desperation, I was about to put some Question to my father, when advancing towards the couch, he pushed the doctor abruptly aside, aud then stood gazing for a few moments witb a strange and unnatural stedfastness upon the countenance of his wife.

I had followed him mechani cally from the window to the bed ; and methought, young as I was, that I could read in bis blank despairing looks a portion of the agony that was torturing his soul. I fancied indeed that he was contemplating my mother with the forlorn and appal'ed air of one who, having a veil suddenly torn from his eyes and enabled to read some fear ful secret, keeps asking himself, "Is it possible? is it possible ? My God I can it be 7" And it wa. in death', stillness, too, tbat she non lay I

Chapter III. The Cop Of Misfortune Filled To The Brim

Although Bhe had no sooner breathed ber last than the conviction of the fearful truth flashed to my soul, yet I refused to believe it. No — it was not possible : at least It seemed not possible to me ! To think that one who had soarcely entered her thirty sixth year, and was therefore but in the prime of life as she was also in the vigour of health and in the bloom of beauty, — to think, I say, that she who half-an-honr before had been seated tranquilly and serenely wilh us in the little parlour, should in that short space of time have gone through so many phases of suffering and then sunk out of existence, was scarcely credible. At all events to my youug mind, sanguine with the hopes of fifteen summers and but little experienced from the world's teaching. of as many winters, it appeared next to impossible that a fond parent was gone, never to reruin !

William shared all my ineffable anguish — shared also that incredulity which still conjured up hope because hope was so necessary where it was so much dreaded to look despair in the face. Robert stood wilh folded arms, gazing down upon the marble ar.d motionless features of thc dead : but the tears whieh trickled down his cheeks, the stifling sobs v.hicb convulsed his' heart, and the working of bis lips, showed how deeply his sullen and callous nature was agitated now. As for S-rah, she seemed to be struck witb a kind of imuitive conviction that this was death whereon she gazed: but little Jane, having no power of such conception, crept away from Sarah, and embracing my knees, asked in a low frightened tone, "what was the matter wilh mamma ! and why the naughty man " (meatiing the surgeon} " had made her arm bleed ?"

Mr. Collins surveyed him in astonishment — Robert was more deeply moved than he had been for some years past; while William, understanding that something was wrong, but not comprehend ing what it could be, gazed with mingled suspense and terror depicted in his eloquent features. As for Sarah and little Jane, they actually retreated into a corner, cowed, overawed, and alarmed, at thc strange aud unnatural aspect which their father wore. But let me not linger at any unnecessary length upon this scene of memorable horror. Suddenly starting 'from the impalement of those agonised feelings which had transfixed him, and with the letter — the fatal letter — escaping from his hand, most likely unobserved by himself,— my father turned away, advanced a pace or two like one who walits in a dream, then suddenly stopped short again — folded his arms across his breast — and slowly cast his eyes around upon his children.

In that deliberate and measured look he embraced os all — and Oh 1 what a world of feeling was there in the despair of that last look, the dimness of which was thus shed upon us I The next moment, with a sudden ejaculation of rage, resembling the yell of a sav.ige beast, my father shot away from our presence, and speeding Then did all the pent-up emotions of my agonis ing soul find vent in a flood of bitterest weep.ngj ■a MARY PRICE ; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A SKRT ANT-MAID. dents occurred; and just as the suu was making the western horizon glow with its departing beams, the little wicket gate of the garden opened, and Tommy the idiot slowly advanced up to the entrance of the cottage, where his uncouth .arm remained darkening the open door-way. But there was a strange expression on his countenance — a 100k of mingled vacuity and horror, as if he had become the depositor of some dreadful se cret, which, while it implanted its strongest terrors in his soul, threw ail his ideas iuto worse confusios and bewilderment than before. and sinking upon a chair, I caught up my little sister upon my knees and strained her to my bosom —for I felt — O cruelly, deeply felt — that I was left in the world to be unto her a mother nowl At the expiration of a few minutes after the vital spirit had fled for evei Mr. Collins, who was himself much affected by tht_ -ceae, gently urged that we should retire imo the parlour; and we all followed nis kindly-given advice.

But ere be led me from the chamber of death, I bent over my departed parent and imprinted a kiss upon her countenance, where death's awful rigidity was already settling: then, as I was about to turn away and quit the room, I saw Robert stretch forth his hand to take tbe letter, which lay on the coverlid, close indeed by one of the now wax-like bands of tbe departed. For more than a minute did he remain on the threshold, gazing in upon us, an afflicted group of bereaved children, as we sat all together with our hinds locked in each other's clasp and looking eloquent iu the deep silence of our grief. We thought that having heard of the dread calamity which had taken place, he was come with the well meaning purpose of bestowing his compassion up on us; and therefore we approached him not— nor did we thiuk it necessary to ask him what he wanted.

But presently he advanced slowly iuto the room ; and coming close up to us, he said in a strange tone and with a still stranger look, " Gone, gone — both parents gonel They told me that the mother was dead — aud I saw the father " " You must not touch thit letter, Robert," I said iu a tone which even st. riled myself witb its deep sepulchral accents : then instantaneously turning towards the surgeon, I observed, " That letter, sir, contains my mother's secret; and, whatever it be it must be kept inviolable so far a. ber children are concerned." *■ I understand you, Mary," replied Mr. Collins ; and taking up the letter, he at once consigned it to bis pocket, adding, " You are desirous that it should remain in my keeping ?" I threw upon bim a look of gratitude, for my heart was now too full to speak: and then I proceeded to the parlour in company with the kind surgeon, and followed by my brothers and sisters.