Aristocracy (Social class) -- England -- Juvenile fiction; Great Britain -- History -- Anne, 1702-1714 -- Juvenile fiction
"I told you how it would be!" spoke the Old Lion, as they stood together
in their upper chamber, smiling at the remembrance of the scene just
passed through. "I knew I had but to find the right man, and our fortune
would be made! You were fine, boy; you were fine! I had reckoned upon
you; yet one never knows how it will be till the moment comes. Some are
struck with stage-fright, and blunder and trip, till all illusion
vanishes. Others mouth and strut through pure terror of the myriad eyes
bent upon them, and bring down ridicule and contempt upon their heads.
But I had confidence in you, and my confidence was not misplaced. We
have taken the town by storm this night; and as we have begun, so shall
it be to the end."
Certainly it seemed as though this prediction were to be fulfilled, for
every performance was crowded to the utmost limit of the two theatres;
and the extraordinary resemblance of the young actor—whose name was
quite unknown to the world—to the great Duke of Marlborough was the talk
of the whole town, and raised an immense curiosity, which spread through
all classes.
Grey called himself Edward White upon the playbills, and was thus known
to the theatre managers, who could give no information about the young
man save that he was a pupil of the old actor Wylde, who had written the
piece, and cast it especially for himself and his _protégé_. When it
was urged that the young man must have known the Duke, else how could he
so accurately reproduce his tricks of voice and speech and manner, they
drily shook their heads, saying that of his past history they were
ignorant, but that as an actor they were satisfied with his capacity,
and were struck by his similarity in figure and bearing to the great
General.
The talk spread through the town, the theatres filled to overflowing,
and crowds flocked behind the scenes nightly to get speech with the
successful actors.
It was perhaps a week after the first performance, and Grey was just
meditating the possibility of escape from the attentions of the
fashionable mob, when a loud and resonant laugh broke upon his ear, and
his face flushed deeply beneath its olive tinting.
Lord Sandford made his way through the crowd about him, and in a moment
the two were face to face.
Grey had of set purpose taken up a station, according to his custom, in
a place where the light was sufficiently bad. The passages and rooms
behind the scenes were never brilliantly illuminated, and the shadows
fell somewhat deeply upon his face; yet it seemed to him well-nigh
impossible, as he looked full into the eyes of the man he had trusted,
and who had failed him, that he should not at once be discovered.
But there was no trace of recognition in Lord Sandford’s bold glance,
though it rested upon his face with a shrewd curiosity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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