Through her recommendation, I obtained the teaching of the young ladies
at the school, but of her more hereafter. The fourth channel was
through the kindness of Mr Selwyn, the lawyer, to whom I shall now
again revert. I had several visits from Mr Selwyn after I had left
Baker Street, and on one of these he informed me, that upon the proofs
of Lionel Dempster's identity being examined by the legal advisers of
Mr Dempster, of Yorkshire, they were considered so positive that the
aforenamed gentleman immediately came to terms, agreeing to give up the
property to Lionel, provided, in consequence of the great improvements
he had made, he was not come upon for arrears of income arising from it.
That Mr Selwyn advised this offer to be accepted, as it would prevent
any exposure of Lady R--, and the circumstances under which Lionel had
been brought up, from being made public. Lionel had written to say that
he was anxious that any sacrifice should be made rather than the affair
should be exposed; and the terms were consented to, and Lionel came into
possession of further property, to the amount of 900 pounds per annum.
As we became more intimate, Mr Selwyn asked me many particulars
relative to myself, and, by his habit of cross-examining, soon gained
the best portion of my history; only one point I did not mention to
him,--that my family supposed that I was dead.
CHAPTER TEN.
One day he came, accompanied by Mrs Selwyn, who joined him very
earnestly in requesting me to pass a day or two with them at their
country house at Kew. I accepted the invitation, and they called for me
in their carriage on their way down. It was summer time, and I was very
glad to be out of London for a day or two. I found a charming family of
two sons and three daughters, grown up, and who appeared very
accomplished. Mr Selwyn then, for the first time, asked me whether I
was settled or not.
I told him no,--that I was giving lessons in music--that I sang at the
chapel, and that I was laying by money.
He said I was right, and that he hoped to be able to procure me pupils;
"But now," said he, "as I did not know that you had a voice, I must be
permitted to hear it, as otherwise I shall not be able to make my
report."
I sat down immediately and sang, and he and Mrs Selwyn, as well as the
daughters, were highly pleased with my performance. During my stay, Mr
Selwyn treated me in, I may say, almost a parental manner, and extracted
something more from me relative to my previous life, and he told me that
he thought I had done wisely in remaining independent, and not again
trusting to Lady M--or Madame d'Albret. I went afterwards several times
to their town house, being invited to evening parties, and people who
were there and heard my singing, sent for me to teach their daughters.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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