VARNEY, THE VAMPYRE; OR, THE FEAST OF BLOOD. CHAPTER CLXXIII. [sic] [Chapter 191] THE PLOT DISCOVERED. -- THE LETTER LEFT AT THE HOTEL BY THE VAMPYRE. The further pursuit of the vampyre was very soon given up by those who had commenced it with, as they had vainly imagined such an assurance of success. Probably with the exception of Mr. Lake himself none were really very eager in it at all, and they were not sorry for a good excuse to drop it. There sat upon the countenance of Mr. Lake an appearance of great anger, and when they got back to the hotel, he said to the landlord, "This is a very disagreeable affair, and I cannot think of remaining here over to-morrow." "But sir, the vampyre has gone now!" "Yes, and may come again, for all I know." "Oh, dear me, surely not now, sir. After what has happened, I should be inclined to say that you will find this the quietest hotel in London." Mr. Lake would not be moved from his determination, however, and briefly again announced that he would on the morrow remove. "How very vexatious," thought the landlord, but he could do nothing in the matter. His only hope, and that was a very slight one indeed, was, by the morning the exasperated feelings of Mr. Lake would be somewhat assuaged, and therefore, he thought it would be, at all events, a prudent thing to say no more to him just then, when he was in such a mood. When Mr. Lake retired to his own apartment he was in anything but a pleasant frame of mind, for he found that things were not exactly turning out as he wished, and he much feared that all his schemes would turn out abortive, in which case they would recoil upon his own head in their consequences. It was quite by accident, that happening to cast his eyes upon the dressing-table, he saw a sealed letter lying there, and upon looking at the superscription he was surprised to find that Annetta was the person for whom it was intended. It was not, as the reader may suppose from what he knows of Mr. Lake, from any honourables scruples that he hestitated at once to open the letter addressed to his neice, but he was for a time considering whether he might not, by doing so, be getting himself into some scrape from which he might find it very difficult to extricate himself. "Who the deuce can it come from?" he said. He turned the epistle about in all directions, but such an inquiry did not assist him, and finally he made up his mind that come what might, he would break the seal and look at the contents. He soon, after coming to the determination, carried it into effect, and to his surprise he found that the letter contained the following statement. -- "To the lady Annetta Lake. "Fear nothing, lady. He who disturbed your repose will disturb it no longer. Be happy, and do not let the dread of such another visitation ever disturb your pure imaginings. Your father will rescue you from your present unhappy circumstances, and you will, likewise, soon see one who ere this would have been with you, had he known of your being in London. "This comes from "VARNEY THE VAMPYRE. "If Mr. Lake, your bad uncle, upon whose dressing table this note is placed, delivers it not to you, woe be to him, for I will make his nights hideous with realities, and his days horrible with recollection and anticipation." Mr. Lake was superstitious. Are not the unprincipled always so? He read the postscript to the note with a shudder; and he felt that he could no more muster courage enough to destroy the letter, than he could to lay violent hands upon himself. There he was with an epistle that he would fain have kept from Annetta, and yet he dared not do so. "Confound my unlucky destiny," he said, "for bringing me to this hotel. Perhaps if I had gone elsewhere, all this would not have happened. Oh, if I could but have suspected what this Mr. Black really was, I would have tried some means for his extermination." He paced his chamber in an agitated manner until Mrs. Lake made her appearance from the chamber of the lady Annetta, where she had been staying, and to her then he at once communicated the letter that gave him so much uneasiness. "I don't know what to do," he said, "or what to think." "Indeed!" "Yes, indeed. Perhaps you can suggest something?" "And can you allow yourself to be made a slave of such fears. There is but one course to pursue, and that is, tomorrow to put the affair altogether in a different shape, by overwhelming Annetta with the seeming evidence that she is the daughter of an attorney's clerk, instead of her real father, Lord Lake. I know of no other way; and then when she finds such, as she will think, to be the case, it's my opinion that she will no longer hesitate to marry our son." "You thing so?" "Indeed do I, The girl is not an absolute fool surely." "Well, of course, I should be very glad if that darling project could be, after all, brought about, but what is to be done with this letter?" "Can you ask?" "I do, when I consider the threat that is in it. That threat, recollect, is to me, and you can afford to think lightly of it.' [sic] "I will take the consequences. It is hardly likely that you will be punished for what you can't help. I will take good care that this letter never reaches Annetta, and as you have it not, why of course you cannot deliver it, and so cannot be blamed." "But I might have it." "No such thing," said the lady snatching it up. "You know me rather too well, I should think, to hope that I would give it up to you, and as for your taking it by force, I should think you knew me too well likewise to make such a ridiculous attempt." "Well, then I wash my hands of it." "Ah! you may as well. I don't know what has come over you of late, you are as mean spirited as you can be, and formerly you used to be able to cope with anything." "We never played for such a stake as we have now upon the board, and I confess that I am rather nervous for the consequences." "Pshaw! I see that I must guide you, or all will be lost. To-morrow let the whole affair be settled. Let this attorney Miller, as you call him, come here, and bring with him the person who is to claim Annetta as his own daughter. Let him have all the evidence that you tell me he has been so ingenious in getting up, ready, in order that he may be in a position to answer any questions." "Yes, yes." "And then, when all is settled, our son must come forward, and make a speech, saying, he don't care a bit, who or what she is, that he loves her and will make her his wife, although she has not a penny piece in the world." "I see, I see." "I think, from what I know of her, that such a course of proceeding will have a great effect upon her." "Well, I hope so." "You hope so! How despondingly you talk." "Why the honest truth--" "Good God! what do you mean by making use of such words, I never told the honest truth in all my life; you may depend that won't do in this world, on any consideration. Never let me hear you say such a thing again, I beg of you." "I was merely going to remark that this vampyre's business had really so completely unsettled my whole nervous system, that I could not act with all the tact and the determination that used to characterise my proceedings, and for which you were ever disposed to give me so much credit.["] "Really." "Yes. But I cannot regret such a state of things so much as I should otherwise do, because I see that you are unmoved and as energetic as ever." "Well, well, say no more." "I am done." "I will prepare our boy for the part he is to act to-morrow; and mind, I shall rely upon you to see your associates and get all the affair in train. Let it be all over by twelve in the morning, so that if you like you can send to Lord Lake where he is staying, at Florence still I presume, an account of the matter by post that same night; only let me see the letter before you send it." "I will, I will; you are my guardian angel." "Pho, pho; you are getting quite romantic and foolish; we have both made up our minds to get money, and we have likewise known so much the want of it, in abundance that is to say, that we have resolved to get it in any way we can." "Yes, that I rather thing is our principle of action." "And has it not succeeded hitherto. Have we not lived well without troubling ourselves to earn the means by which we have done so. Earn, indeed! I leave that to a parcel of sleepy drones of people who have not the wit to live upon others as we have; so now got to bed and sleep off some of the unmanly fears that seem of late to be continually pressing upon you. It is well you have me to look after you as I do." -+- Next Time: The Meeting in the Morning at the Hotel -- The Preparations of the Attorney. +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=+ | This Varney the Vampyre e-text was entered by members of the | | Science Fiction Round Table #1 (SFRT1) on the Genie online | | service. | | The Varney Project, a reincarnation of this "penny dreadful" bit | | of fiction, was begun in November of 1993 by James Macdonald and | | should take about four years for re-serialization. | | These chapters are being posted once a week to the Round Table | | Bulletin Board and are also being placed in the Round Table File | | Library. | | For further information concerning Varney e-texts, please send | | email to: | | h.liu@juno.com | +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=+ ============================================================================== The Varney Project Chapter 191 Ver 1.00 08/25/1997 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ General notes on this chapter Source: H.Liu entry from the Arno edition, 1970, text is reprint of 1847 edition Drop capital: No Figures in source: 0 Page numbers in source: 762-764 Sections: 1 Approximate number of characters: Number of paragraphs: Comments: Chapter appears mis-numbered as CLXXIII. The pursuit of the vampyre is short-lived, and our attention is turned once again to the situation at the London Hotel and the Lakes. Mr. Lake is initially quite shaken by the vampyre affair and once again proclaims, to the dismay of the landlord, that they will leave. Upon returning to his room, he finds a letter addressed to Annetta. With only a slight pause, and this not due to honorable intentions, he opens the letter and is stunned to find that the note is from Varney the Vampyre. The letter tells Annetta that she has nothing more to fear from him, and that her father will soon rescue her and that another will come to her aid. He also adds an ominous warning to Mr. Lake, the uncle that if he does not deliver this letter, he will suffer the consequences of crossing a vampyre. Mr. Lake shows the letter to his wife who now shows herself to be even more cold-blooded and calculating than her husband. Mr. Lake wavers but Mrs. Lake insists that they press on with their scheme to discredit Annetta's heritage and cheat her father of his property. Indeed, she reminds her husband that this life of greed and dishonesty is what they do best and that honest work is beneath them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Modification History Version Date Who What changes made -------- -------- ------------- ---------------------------------- 1.00 08/25/1997 H.Liu Initial gold version, rough proof read. ==================================End of File=================================