Agnes, or, Beauty and Pleasure — page 95: what you’re looking at

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

Ss" Ashley ssh ssl sls AGNES ; OR, BEAUTY AND PLEASURE. Ta that when the intelligence reached you of her death, you thought proper to lock up her boxes and other effects, whatsoever she may have pos- sessed, in case any one should come forward to claim them as her heir ?” “Oh, dear me, ma’am!”’ exclaimed Mrs. Mad- dox, for a moment looking frightened: “ every- thing belonging to the poor dear I mean the shocking bad woman, has been taken the utmost eare of: and if you, ma’am, have any claim, and will of course prove it * * T a claim upon the woman P—heaven forbid !” cried Miss Neale, disdainfully. * Well, ma’am,’” responded Mrs. Maddox, taking courage, “ I was thinking to myself that a young, elegant, and handsome young lady such as you are - “Cease this flattering nonsense,” interrupted Cicely. ‘‘ How do you know that I am hand- some? Itis the very reverse: I am as ugly as Sin,” she added, feeling quite confident that the dense folds of her veil might well enable her thus to calumniate her own good looks. ‘“ Understand me well! I have no claim upon the late Mrs. Chicklade: I should hang or drown myself if I had the misfortune to be of the remotest kinship with such a person. Neither am I come to inter- fere with anything that you may have done in reference to her goods and chattels. If you found a hoard of guineas in her box and substituted half- pence, it is nothing to me.” “ Goodness gracious !” exclaimed Mrs. Maddox, “what a singular lady you are!”—and she affected to hold up her hands in admiring asto- nishment. “Perhaps 0,” rejoined Miss Neale quietly. “ But whatsoever you may have done with money or trinkets belonging to the deceased, you will at least admit that if there were any letters or papers in her box, they are of no use to you.” “Ob, dear me, ma’am!” ejaculated Mrs, Mad- dox, “I can assure you I never opened a single letter that I found in the box : “Well then there were letters,’ interrupted the young lady with emphasis. “ That admission is made—and it is a step in the right direction. Now the object of my visit may be explained in a few words. I want you to give me up every docu- ment, letter, paper—even to the veriest scrap—that you may have found in Mrs. Chicklade’s box. Do this at once—and I make up to twenty guineas the sum already piaced in your hand,” “Well, ma’am, I confess,’ answered Mrs. Maddox, straining her eyes with all her might to penetrate through the folds of Cicely’s veil, yet without appearing to do so—and failing also in the attempt, for the thick black lace was imper- vious to the woman’s regards; “well, ma’am, I eonfess that there was a little packet of papers; and I take heaven to witness I have not yet had time I mean to say I have not had the imper- tinent curiosity to pry into them.” “But you have put them away somewhere ?” said Miss Neale inquiringly: “you did not give them up to the police when they came to the house; for if you had, the incident would have been mentioned at the examination of the mur- deress to-day—and I was at the Court and have learnt everything that transpired, besides reading it all in the evening paper.” ——— a eee eee. 87 “Well, no, ma’am,” rejomed Mrs. Maddox, “I did not give the letters up to the police. In the first place these fellows are so excessively bump- tious that I for one should not think of helping them in any single respect. In the second place, though I agree with you that Mrs. Chicklade was a bad woman, yet there would be no use in letting the poor wretch’s private matters come before the world. And in the third place, ma’am, how do I know but what some respectable and good names might be delicately mixed up in those letters? You understand me, ma’am P?” “T understand you so well,” answered Cicely, “that I should bo a fvol to suppose you do not penetrate the reason for which I want to get pos- session of those papers. { see plain enough that you have secreted them s¢mewhere; and you were right in so doing. Now, here is the money,” added Miss Neale, shaking her purse to show that it was well filled; “and when you produce the papers, my pledge shall be liberally redeemed,” “And you promise me, ma’am,” said Mrs, Maddox hesitatingly, “that it’s all square, and that this is no plant put upon an unsuspecting body e “Nonsense!” ejaculated Cicely, the emphasis with which she spoke receiving an impulse from her disgust at the slang terms made use of by the woman. “Do you think that if the police had suspected you had secreted such papers, and that they were of any use, so wretched a trick as this would be resorted to as a means of obtaining them, when a search-warrant might be issued and a posse of constables would overwhelm your esta- blishment in a moment P” “True!” said Mrs. Maddox, her mind evidently relieved by this stern and home-thrusting line of argument from the lips of her strange visitress, “Well, ma’am, the papers may be your’s; but still, as they are perhaps of more value than I at pre- sent have an idea of, I would rather wait till to- morrow before I conclude the bargain o “Now or never!” interrupted Miss Neale em- phatically. “Isee what you are aiming at. It is to get a better prico for your papers. [I will give you twenty guineas in addition to the sum you have already received—and not one shilling more! You may be cunning—but I am decisive. We now understand each other. Not another word is necessary. Accept or decline the bargain, just as you think fit: but tell me now and at once.” * Well, ma’am, it shall be as you wish,” re- sponded Mrs. Maddox, who saw that she had in- deed a decisive character to deal with: then, with a significant smile, she asked, “Isn’t it rum, though, that you should have been standing all this while just above the very things we have been talking about ?” “ Not at all extraordinary, since you have con- cealed them there,’ observed Miss Neale ;—and she stepped off the heartthrug as Mrs. Maddox stooped down towards it. The woman rolled it partialiy up and raised a portion of the carpet which it had covered: she then lifted a piece of one of the planks forming the floor; and from the recess which it revealed, she produced a small packet of letters, tied round with a dingy bit of ribbon. Cicely had plunged her regards into the recess, so as to make sure that all the documents which it contained were ee ee ee Com Ghbook