Agnes, or, Beauty and Pleasure — page 220: what you’re looking at

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

212 AGNES; OR, BEAUTY AND/ PLEASURE. fact, rt might have looked queer even then: but) woman! that evening never came for her: she with what I now know “ was murdered in the afternoon !” “Tell me everything,” said Ormsby; “for Iam “But the letter?” ejaculated Ormsby: “you distressed on Mr. Timperley’s account—I see that | have kept it ?” it is indeed something serious ; but gold shall pur- “No, sir: I gave it up the very evening after chase your secrecy! Explain yourself. Did you/| the murder took place,” answered Mrs. Maddox. know Mrs. Chicklade ?” “Gave it up?” echoed Ormsby. “To whom ?” “ Did I know her, sir! Ab, full well! Why, “Why, sir, a@ young lady came, with a great she was lodging in this very house at the time she | thick veil over her face, so that I could not catoh met her death !” the slightest glimpse of her features -——+” “Ts this possible ?” ejaculated Ormsby. “I was “Then how do you know she was young P” notaware of it!” ' You shall bear presently. This lady came “ But I suppose you must have read the murder | and proposed to buy up every document, paper, at the time,” said the woman; “and you must have ! letter, even tothe veriest scrap, that I might have seen that Mrs. Chicklade lived at a particular | found in Mrs. Chicklade’s box. She offered me number in Norton Street; and so when Mr, Tim: | twenty guineas; and when I saw that she was #0 perley asked you to call here, I wonder it did not | eager to have the letters r strike you that it was the very same house ?” “You endeavoured to drive a better bargain P” “Oh! but Tread the murder hurriedly at the | interjected Ormsby. time—and I remembered it imperfectly !” replied | * OF course, sir,” replied Mrs. Maddox, with a Ormsby. knowing look, “I was anxious to get as much as “Depend upon it,’ rejoined Mrs. Maddox, | I possibly could for the papers.” “Mr. Timperley must have noticed the coinci- “ And no doubt,” said Ormsby, “it was with dence: and that was why he did not like to come | the view of selling Mr. Timperley’s letter back to himself. So he sent you. But no matter! It was him at a good price that you did not give it up here that poor Mrs. Chicklade lodged at the time. intothe hands of the police ?” I had known her for years—she had seen manyan| “Well, sir, perhaps there was something in up and down——” that,” rejoined the woman, laughing: and now she “ Well, well,” interposed Ormsby: “ but what of | helped herself to another glass of wine. “But I Mr. Timperley in reference to that woman P” | must tell you candidly I did not of course think “Why, you must know, sir,” pursued Mrs. that Mr. Timperley had anything to do with the Maddox, “ that the moment I heard that poor murder of Mrs. Chicklade—no more than the Mrs. Chicklade had been foand murdered in- | young lady herself, who came to bargain about the deed, I went and identified the corpse at the letters; because Winifred Barrington was already tavern I took possession of all the papers in ' in custody—she had been examined before the her box ; and perhaps you wouldn’t believe me if | police-magistrate—and who could doubt at the I was to say that I didn’t think of reading | time that she was the guilty party ?” them.” | *‘ And why did you suppose that the young lady “Of course you did read them. That was | wanted the letters?” asked Lord Ormsby. natural !” interjected Ormsby. “T naturally fancied,” rejoined Mrs. Maddox, “Well, sir—and amongst those papers was a | “that the lady’s character had been compromised letter from Mr. Timperley. It bore the date of | —that she had either become a mother while un- only the day before; and it was evidently in an- | wedded, or that she had carried on some intrigue, swer to one which Mrs. Chicklade must have | and that Mrs. Chicklade had been an agent or a written to him. He wrote in great terror, be- | go-between a seeching her to keep silence in reference to some, ‘Ab, [comprehend!” said Lord Ormsby. “ And discovery she had made—it expressed his wonder therefore you concluded the bargain ?” how she could possibly have made that diseovery “T made a bargain with her and gave up the at all % |papers, Mr. Timperley’s letter being amongst “Did it not allude more explicitly,” inquired |them. I suppose the young lady saw that I was Ormsby, “ to the nature of the discovery itself?” | anxious to catch a glimpse of her face; and so she “ Let me think ?” said Mrs. Maddox. “ Ah! I | concluded I must be full of curiosity with regard remember! It did allude to some papers respect- |to her. Well, and so I naturally was. But what ing a peerage and an estate; but I don’t think it ‘did she do? She actually secreted the key of the mentioned any names.” street-door; and as she went out she locked the “T daresay,” thought Ormsby to himself, “that | door and dropped the key down the area. That woman Chicklade had by some means or another | was to prevent herself from being followed before discovered how Timperley had preserved the | she should have time to get to a sufficient distance forged documents which he found in Waldron’s | from the house.” office, and which related to my affairs.—Proceed,; ‘And did her stratagem succeed P” inquired my good woman,” he said, addressing himself to | Ormsby, who was burning with impatience to learn Mrs. Maddox. ‘You were telling me the con-|the end of the narrative and see how it would tents of the letter which Mr. Timperley wrote to | again connect itself with Mr. Timperley. Mrs. Chicklade. What else did he say therein P” “T had no intention of following the lady,” re- “Oh, let me see? He said that though it was} plied Mrs. Maddox,—“ though, as I have said be- a very large sum which she had demanded—five | fore, I naturally felt a great curiosity concerning thousand pounds—yet she should have it; and he| her. But clever as she was, she was baffled by an bade her meet him on the following evening at } accident — though up to this day I daresay she nine o'clock, on Waterloo Bridge, and he would | suspects it not. I will teli you how it was, sir. be prepared with the amount. But alas, poor | When she called at the house my servant-woman i COMNMIC VOOKS a(S@) 3