Agnes: A Tale of the Streets — page 261: what you’re looking at

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

e149 AGNES; OR, BEAUTY AND PLRASURR. a TIN ee 1 EIS ame Et RRs yok weteene w moment suspect Mr, Timporley: I could aot} for its exceeding respectability, but’ that on ti have thought of such a thing: I believed him to cohtrary at was notorious for ita nurberous houses be a gentleman of the highest respoctability, and / of evil repute. Nevertheless, there are some t . that it was therefore 4 mere trifling and insignifi- _ reputable habitations there, and three or four goou cant coincidence that he should bave been seon | shops, Indeed, as Lord Ormsby, drawing 118 soaking to that woman, I should Lave conceived | mantle more closely around his form, was pushing (hat 1 was insulting him by even mentioning the ' bis way along tho atreet, he was suddenly struck fact at all; for it would have looked like throwing | by behulding a picture in the window of a print- e suspicion upon him. Therefore 1 held my peace ;: shop. It was a well-executed lithograph portrai?: and I was glad that I did so, for very soon: of the Hon. Mrs. Hardress; and the likeness hab afterwatds I heard the rumour that the murderess , at once attracted the nobloman from the similis liad been discovered and was arrested. But even , tude which it bore to the water-colour drawin; when after a time the young lady was acquitted, | executed by bis daughter Agnes. This lithograp! my suspicione did not settie on Mr. Timperley : , belonged to a series entitled “ Portraits of tk indeed I bad almost céased to recollect the little | Aristucracy ;” and all those which were as yet pubs incident of my having seen him and the old woman | lished, were arrayed in that window. There were tugether. But now that the mark bes suddenly ; abuut a dozen ; and amongst them wore the Hon., fallen from his countenance and that [ find him | Hector and Mrs, Hardress, to be a villain—now that I know him to be capable{ Having contemplated these portraita for a few of any wickednese—the incident bas come back ; moments, Lurd Ormsby continued his way ; and to my recollection, fraught with a stupendous sig- | a6 he examined the numbers on thé street doors, nificancy |” he said tu himself, “ I am almost certain that it is Such wae tho strain in which James Nash had | the right one which I amfbarrying in my mind ! spoken to Sir Itoderick Dalham ; and the latier Yes—L could not hav gotten ; for the occur- resolved to consult Lord Ormeby. , rence has alwa eoply impressed upon my “It is scarcely pussible,” he thought to himeelr, | memon® Wet the inquiry I am about to make is “that Tiwperley could bave been the assassin of | probably! useless -——” the old woman; and yet the myatery of such a: Here 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 tho particular of some extraordinary circumstances. Who ean house fur which he was louking. He waa raising toll what mutives the wan may have had ty perpe-.. his hand to the knocker, when he thought to him. trate such a crime? Mere wondrous things have sell, “ Yes— it will positively prove vain and futile t vecurred in the world than that he should ulti. | —mere trouble for nothing, besides the loathsume mately prove to be the assassia of Mrs. Chick. idoa of entering such a house as thie! Twenty Jade!” : Yoars ago !—and poor creatures of this class doubt. The reader will now understand how it wae that , less change their habitations a thousand times Sir Roderick abstained from mentioning to hia within such a period ! And yet, after all, it ia just wife the intelligenco he had teseived from the possible that I may hear of her? What if she be valet ; inasmuch as the topic of tho mysterious in distress, and a pittance from my purse would murder in the lane was naturally a very sore one , reliovo her P” with Winifrod,—not bocause sie fancied that her This iast consideration’ settled the question in innocence was doubted, but bevanse it wes celen.' the mind of the generous nobleman; and he lated to conjure up so many pitiful as. oe ons, = knocked at the door of the house. The summons her arrest, her imprisonment, tho coumbinaiion cf) was alaust immediately answered by a stout circumstances against her, and tho ordeal of bar female, upwards of forty years of age, whose trial ! -' apparel was replete with tawdrinesa and whuse Sir Roderick consulted Lord Ormsby, as we de-'1).ks were full of boldness, Wandsume she had ecribed in the preceding chapter ; and ‘his uvble- | ¢vidently been in former years; for her features man counselled a further pause for four-and-twenty wore gool— but ber checks were covered with hours, that in the weanwhile they might both de. reage, and she had a certain air which denoted liberate on the best course that was tu be puraued, : that she was not averse to a drop of strong wators. But, as we havo also stated in the previous chepter, | As fur her figure, it had no doubt once been a fine something occurred in the interval to strengthen une; but all youtaful symmetry was lost in a de- most natorially the suspicion which bad been cx- | velopment of the proportiuns into the most ubese cited against Timperley. What this cecurrenee exuboranco. was—or rathor chaia of cecurrences— cannot bo: “Pray walk in, sir,” she at onco said, with a described in a few words; and we must therefore certain familiarity of tone which evidently was proceed to give the details av length. | habitual with Ler. va We aro about to speak of the evoning of that. A senso of lusthing for an instant, "id Lord samo day on which Sir Roderick Dalham consulled Ormsby back ; there was somethie~ “azusting and Lord Ormsby. It wus about ning o'clock on that | revolting in the morotriciour aspoct of that woman, avening—tho November weather was raw and “Ah!’’ she ejaculated, aru sudden idea evidently cold, and a mist which had prevailed for tho last struck hers “ perhens-;\u, sir, are Mr. Tim- » hour or two was brginning to turn into a driz-' perley P” : nling rain—when Lord Ormsby, alighting froma The question was asto nding; and fora moment cab at the bottom of Aibauy Street, crossed the New —but only a moment “-Ormsby felt , bewildored. Rvad and quickly ponetraten juto Norton Stroot, Then instantaneous!’ recovering his presence of We have alluded to this neightjuarlood in one of mind, he said, “ “iY it is here, then, that Mr. the carly chapters of our narrati¥>; and we then Timperley is expec’ ed P” described it as boing a sirect that'was not famed; ‘Yeu, *.-—~’tis rere. Pray walk in,” said the comicloo