Agnes, or, Beauty and Pleasure — page 218: what you’re looking at

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

#19 AGNES; OE, BEAUTY AND PLEASURE. moment suspect Mr. Timperley: I could not|for its exceeding respectability, but that on the have thought of such a thiog: I believed him to | coutrary it was notorious for its numerous houses be a gentleman of the bighest respectability, and | of evil repute. Nevertheless, there are some tew that it was therefore a mere trifling and insignifi- reputable habitations there, and three or four gooc cant coincidence that he should bave been seen shops. Indeed, as Lord Ormsby, drawing his speaking to that woman. I should have conceived mantle more closely around bis form, was pusbing tbat | wes insulting him by even mentioning the his way along the street, he was suddenly struck | fact at all; for it would have looked like throwing | by bebolding a picture in the window of a print- & suspicion upon him. Therefore i held my peace; shop. It was a well-executed lithograph portrait and I was glad that I did so, for very soon’ of the Hon. Mrs. Hardress; and the likeness had afterwards I heard the rumour that the murderess at once attracted the nobleman from the simili- | had been discovered and was arrested. But even tude which it bore, to the water-colour drawing ~ when after a time the young lady was acquitted, executed by his daughter Agnes. This li . my suspicions did ‘not settle on Mr. Timperley : belonged to a series entitled “Portraits of the indeed I bad almost ceased to recolleet the little Aristocracy ;” and all those which were as yet pabe incident of my having seen him and the old woman lished, were arrayed in that window. Thete were together. But sow that the mask has suddenly about a dozen; and amongst them were the Hon. fallen from his countenance and that I find him Hector and Mrs. Hardress. to be a villain—now that I know him to be capable! Having contemplated these portraits for a few of any wickedness—the incident has come beck | moments, Lord Ormsby continued his way ; and to my recollection, fraught with a stupendous sig- | as he examined the numbers on the street doora, nificancy !” be said to himself, “I am almost certain that it is Such was the strain in which James Nash had the right one which I am carrying in my mind! spoken to Sir Roderick Dalham ; and the latter Yes—I could not have forgotten; for the occur- resolved to consult Lord Ormsby. _Tence has always been deeply impressed upon my “ It is searcely possible,” he thought to himselr,, memory! Yet the inquiry I am about to make is “that Timperley could have been the assassin of probably useless i the old woman; and yet the mystery of such a Heré he stopped short, alike in his musings and * murder can only be cleared up by the development in his walk; for he had just reached the particular of some extraordinary circumstances. Who can house for which he was louking. He was raising tell what motives the man may have had to perpe- | his hand to the knocker, when he thought to bim- trate such a crime? More wondrous things have self, “ Yes—it will positively prove vain and futile! occurred in the world than that he should ulti- | —wmere trouble for nothiog, besides the loathsome mately prove to be the assassin of Mre. Chiek- idea of entering such a house as this! Twenty lade!” | years ago!—and poor creatures of this class duubt- The reader will now understand how it wasthat less change their habitations a thousand times | Sir Roderick abstained from mentioning to his within such a period! And yet, after all, it is just wife the intelligenee he had received -from the possible that Imay hear of her? What if che be valet ; inasmuch as the topic of the mysterious | in distress, and a pittance from my purse wouid rmourder in the lane was naturally a very sore one reliéve her?” with Winifred,—not because she fancied that her| This last consideration settled the question in innocence was doubted, but because it wes caleu-| the mind of the generous nobleman; and he lated to conjure up so many painful associations,— knocked at the door of the house. The summons her arrest, her imprisonment, the combination of | was almost jmmediately answered by a stout circumstances against her, and the ordeal of her | female, upwards of forty years of age, whose trial! ‘apparel was replete with tawdriness and whose ——— Sir Roderick consulted Lord Ormesby, as we de- | louks were full of boldness. Handsome she had evidently been in former years; for her features were good— but her cheeks were covered with rouge, and she had a certain air which denoted that she was not averse to a drop of strong waters. As for her figure, it had no doubt once been a fine one; but all youthful symmetry was lost in a de- velopment of the proportions into the most obese exuberance. “Pray walk in, sir,” she at once said, with a certain familiarity of tone which evidently was scribed in the preceding chapter ; and this noble- | man counselled a further pause for four-and-twenty hours, that in the meanwhile they might both de- liberate on the best course that was to be pursued. But, as we have also stated in the previous chapter, something occurred in the interval to strengthen most materially the suspicion which had been ex- | cited against Timperley. What this occurrence was—or rather chain of oeccurrences—cannot be | described in a few words; and we must therefore proceed to give the details at length. We are about to speak of the evening of that same day on which Sir Roderick Dalbam consulted Lord Ormsby. It was about nine o’clock on that evrening—the November weather was raw and cold, and a mist which had prevailed for the last hour or two was beginning to turn into a dris- gling rain—when Lord Ormsby, alighting from a cab at the bottom of Albany Street, crossed the New Rwsd and quickly penetrated into Norton Street. We hare aliuded to this neighbourbood in one of the early chapters of our narrative; and we then | described it as being a street that was not famed | ' habitual with her. A sense of loathing for an instant held Lord Ormsby back; there was something disgusting and revolting in the meretricious aspect of that woman. “ Ah” she ejaculated,-as a sudden idea evidently struck her: “ pernaps you, sir, are Mr. Tim- perley ?” The question was astounding; and fora moment —but only a moment—Orwsby felt bewildered. Tuen instantaneously recovering his presence of miod, he said, “Ah! it is here, then, that Mr, Timperley is expected ?” “Yes, sir—’tis here, Pray walk in,” said the LI mMIicbooks . (E(0)