Agnes, or, Beauty and Pleasure — page 100: what you’re looking at

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prise that ever seized upon a human being. The contents of this letter were very brief; but they must have been significant enough—or at least they rapidly conjured up ideas and associations which now absorbed Cicely’s mind to such a de- gree that her own wrongs as well as her thoughts of vengeance were for the time forgotten. “‘ Heavens! is it possible? can it be P” she asked within herself; and with her elbow resting on the table, and her hand supporting her head, she fell into the profoundest meditation. At length she slowly began to waken up as it were from that depth of thought. She now sorted all the letters :—those which bore no reference to her own affairs, she consigned to the flames: but those which had been written by Hector Hardress to the deceased Mrs. Chicklade, as well as that one epistle of stupendous import which had filled her with so much wonderment, she carefully locked up in her desk. It was long however before she retired to rest: she had so much to think of ;—and when she did at length seek her couch, her slumber was haunted with strange, wild, and fearful dreams. Before concluding this chapter, we will put the reader in possession of some few additional facts respecting Cicely Neale. Her father was the brother of Mrs. Timperley: he was an attorney, and in practice at Cambridge. Being a man of ex- travagant habits and inclined to dissipation, he was neglectful of his business: he was therefore poor; and when his brother-in-law Mr. Timperley was down in the world, he was unable to assist him. Cicely was an only child. Her father died when she was a girl; and the widowed Mrs. Neale retired with her orphan daughter to a cottage some three or four miles distant from Cambridge. Mr. Neale had left his affairs in a condition so closely bordering on insolvency that when his debts and funeral expenses were paid, there was nothing left for the widow and child. Mrs. Neale had however three or four relations residing in different parts of the country, and who were in easy circumstances, They generously contributed enough for her maintenance; and they paid for Cicely’s boarding-school expenses. When Cicely was about nineteen years of age, she lost her mother; and the relations just referred to, each offered her a home until something could be done to place her out in the world,—one and ail sug- gesting that she must endeavour to earn her bread as a governess, for which capacity she had been by education qualified. Mrs. Timperley, however, who wrote to Cicely about the same time, proffered the orphan girl an asylum without any such con- dition as that which was attached to the proposals of her other relatives. On the contrary, Mrs. Timperley with frankness stated that she should like to have her niece as a companion, and even hinted at the possibility of her adoption by Mr. Timperley and herself, as they were childless. Cicely Neale—possessing a spirit but little suited for the servility and drudgery belonging to the life of a governess—at once rejected the offers of all the relations on her mother’s side, and she half made up her mind to accept the proposal made her by Mrs. Timperley—though she did not immediately signify this much to the lawyer’s wife, but merely stated that she would give a final answer when her feelings should have some- AGNES; OR, BEAUTY AND PLEASURE. what recovered from the shock produced by her mother’s death. The late Mrs. Neale had been a parsimonious and saving woman. Quite different from her hus- band, she abhorred extravagant habits; and her economy had merged into meanness,—though per- haps her conduct deserved not so harsh a term, inasmuch as if she hoarded to the extent of her power, it was for the sake of her daughter. Thus she did not expend the full allowance made by her relatives; and after her death, upwards of two hundred pounds were discovered by Cicely in her mother’s writing-desk. With this provision the orphan Miss Neale was enabled to remain at the cottage until such time that she should decide finally upon her half-formed resolve of accepting a home in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. But after the lapse of a few months a circumstance transpired which induced Cicely to change her mind altogether upon that point. Accident threw her in the way of Hector, then a student at one of the Colleges of the University. They met occasionally and stealthily. Cicely—then an artless unsophisticated girl of between nineteen and twenty, but with no more experience in the world than if she had been four or five years younger—soon learnt to love the handsome and elegant Hector with the fondest de- votion; and she believed that this love was reci- procated in all its purity and sincerity. For a young lady to be seen with a student of the University was death to her reputation; and this much Cicely knew,—her mother having fre- quently counselled her to avoid the chance of form- ing any such acquaintance. Miss Neale’s modesty and propriety of feeling—which supplied the place of that more worldly-minded prudence which ex- perience would have furnished—made her hesitate to continue those stealthy meetings which were so constantly exposed to the risk of observation; and she could not possibly receive Hector at her own cottage. Then was it that Hector had recourse to a stratagem which he foresaw wouid serve a double purpose: namely, that of quieting Cicely’s scruples, and in process of: time rendering her his victim. We must here state that about three miles further away into the country an elderly woman was tem- porarily inhabiting a little cottage. This was Mrs, Chicklade, who for some reason which we need not pause to describe, had been compelled to leave London until a storm which threatened her should have blown over. Hardress had seen her in Lon- don, and had there availed himself of her services in his libertine pursuits. One day, when riding out into the country in the neighbourhood of Cam- bridge, he recognised his old metropolitan acquaint- ance Mrs, Chicklade, in front of the little cottage ; and her presence suddenly suggested an idea to re- lieve him from his bewilderment how to act in future with regard to Cicely Neale. He soon came to an understanding with Mrs. Chicklade; and the plot was put into execution. Cicely was assured by her lover that there was a highly respectable person residing at a suitable distance, at whose cottage and beneath whose auspices they might thence- forth meet. The unsuspicious Miss Neale fell into the snare; and Mrs. Chicklade’s habitation became the scene of her future interviews with Hardress, On every occasion when Hector pur- posed to be there, he wrote to Mrs. Chicklade, who forthwith found an opportunity of communicating COMmmcooolx<s (E(0) <i ae ae ee ee