Agnes, or, Beauty and Pleasure — page 76: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

——— ee a ee mn ee em A 68 “ Here are three rings on these fingers—but none on the little finger.” ** And neither of those rings,’ said Charles em- phatically, ‘is the one that I saw. I could not help noticing it, because I thought there was something so significant in the way in which the woman displayed it—as if there were a secret con- nected with it, and she felt that she had the power of using it as a means of coercion. It was a lady’s ring—a ruby in the middle, set round with pearls—I could not possibly be mistaken on this point!” “Tt is an important one,” observed the police- official, glancing at his companion, who nodded assentingly. “It does not seem that the person of the murdered woman has been rifled: as much jewellery as she was likely to have about her is still here, with the exception of that ring. The erime was not therefore perpetrated for the mere purpose of robbery—that’s as clear as daylight! It looks like a deed of vengeance. But did you hap- pen to hear any name mentioned ?” “ Ab, I recollect!’ said Charles: “the old wo- man addressed the young one as Miss Barrington. And now I think I have told you all I can possibly call to mind.” “Well, sir,” responded the official, “ you must be so good as to attend at the Coroner’s Inquest to-morrow—and perhaps at the police-court, if we succeed in finding out this girl Barrington. Your name and address, if you please, sir?” Charles produced his card, intimating at the Same time that he was a clerk in the Home Office. The constables had noticed that he averted his eyes as much as possible from the hideously dis- coloured countenance of the murdered woman— and that when compelled by the incidents of the conversation to turn his looks upon the corpse, it was with a strong visible shuddering and with all the evidences of a profound horror. They there- fore intimated that as the spectacle was one only too well calculated to shock his feelings, there was not the slightest necessity for him to remain any longer upon the spot. Charles De Vere thankfully availed himself of this permission to retire; and hastening away, he bent his steps homeward. On first beholding the corpse of the woman, a thousand ideas, as we have already said, arose con- flictingly in the young man’s mind. Vividly he recollected how that hag had haunted his mother! —with equal vividness too had those words which that very afternoon he had caught from his mo- ther’s lips, flashed to his mind! “ Wretched, infa- mous woman! evil genius that has crossed my AGNES; OR, BEAUTY AND PLEASURE. of the dispute between Miss Barrington and the old woman. Now, after all that had transpirec~ especially with the circumstanve of the missing ring—Charles had no doubt that Mrs. Chicklade had met her death at the hands of the young seamstress ; and he well-nigh \oathed himself for having, though only for an instant, entertainei ap horrible a suspicion in respect to his own mother. He literally writhed as it were within his entire being, as he sped along towards Belmont Cottaze ; and in a voice of incescribable agony, he exclaimed aloud, “ Forgive me, mother !—for God’s sake forgive me!” It was in a state of wild excitement that he reached his home; and on hastening into the par- lour, he found Mrs. De Vere seated there. ** Good heavens, Charles! what is the matter ?” she inquired, springing up from her chair, her countenence as pale as death and her whole form quivering. “ That woman, mother,” cried her son,—“ that woman “Yes, yes, Charles! For God’s sake speak !” —and Mrs. De Vere tottered to her chair, on which she sank down. “That woman is—is—murdered !” rejoined the youth, who in the violence of his own excitement did not notice how tremendously Mrs. De Vere was excited also. “ Murdered!” she said. “ Is this possible?” “ Yes—murdered !”” exclaimed Charles: “ and I fear by that very young girl whom we saw dis- puting with her. Oh, it was a dreadful spectacle! —the bare recollection of it “ “Sit down, Charles—and compose yourself. Here! take a glass of water!” and his mother was now all alacrity to give him the refreshment. Charles drank at a draught the contents of the tumbler ; and then he proceeded, in hurried and broken sentences, to explain to his mother all that had occurred. He told her how his intervention had been rejected by the young milliner—how he had gone in search of his mother—how, on not finding her at the cottage, he had sped off again in an- other direction—how he had thus found his way back to the spot where the altercation between the two females had taken place—and how he had discovered the lifeless form of the hag, with the policemen bending over it. As he progressed in his narrative, he grew somewhat more calm ; and it was in a more collected manner, too, that he recapitulated everything which had taken place between himself and the constables. Mrs. De Vere listened with an expression of fearful inte- y : path! futal spectre that seems doomed to haunt | rest upon her countenance ; and she occasionally me! Oh, if ever there were a moment when I felt inclined to do some decperate deed to rid myself Sor ever of your persecutions, it is now !’—Those were the words: and they swept into Charles De Vere’s memory as if they were a shower of molten lead-drops smiting his brain. A _ horrible suspicion had thus for an instant crossed him .in respect to his own mother: for why had she dis- appeared so mysteriously? why had he failed to overtake her? why had he not found her at the cottage on his return thither? No wonder, then, that he had staggered and nearly fallen, on first beholding the murdered woman !—but the effort with which he had so abruptly saved himself, was accompanied by the equally sweeping recollection | —_— — interrupted the earlier part of the narrative by questions in respect to what tke old woman had said when Charles had offered Miss Barrington his protection ? “It is a dreadful occurrence,” she observed, when the whole story was complete. “To think that a young girl—such as you have described this Miss Barrington to be, and such as she struck me from the hasty glimpse which I obtained of her o “Oh, shocking indeed!” ejaculated young De Vere. “But how was it that I missed you, mother P” “TI can scarcely tell,’ she answered. “I must have gone one way while you took another. Ab! Eo LNOOKS