My mother's beauty
fascinated him. He took her from the strolling players, and
surrounded her with every luxury that a woman could desire in a
house of her own.
"I don't know how long they lived together. I only know that my
father, at the time of my first recollections, had abandoned her.
She had excited his suspicions of her fidelity--suspicions which
cruelly wronged her, as she declared to her dying day. I believed
her, because she was my mother. But I cannot expect others to do
as I did--I can only repeat what she said. My father left her
absolutely penniless. He never saw her again; and he refused to
go to her when she sent to him in her last moments on earth.
"She was back again among the strolling players when I first
remember her. It was not an unhappy time for me. I was the
favorite pet and plaything of the poor actors. They taught me to
sing and to dance at an age when other children are just
beginning to learn to read. At five years old I was in what is
called 'the profession,' and had made my poor little reputation
in booths at country fairs. As early as that, Mr. Holmcroft, I
had begun to live under an assumed name--the prettiest name they
could invent for me 'to look well in the bills.
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