Agnes: A Tale of the Streets — page 263: what you’re looking at

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2128 fact, it might dmme"Tooked queer even then: but with what I now know , “Tell me everything,” said Ormeby; “for Iam distressed on Mr. Timperley’s account—TI see that it is indeed something serious ; but gold shall pur. chase your secrecy! Jixplain yourself. Did you know Mrs. Chicklade ?”’ “ Did I know her, sir! Ab, full well! Why, she was lodging io this very house at the time she met her death !” * Is this possible ?” ejaculated Ormsby. “I was not aware of it!" ‘“‘ But I suppose you must have read the murder at the time,” said the woman; “and you must have seen that Mre. Chicklade lived at a particular number in Norton Street; and so when Mr. Tim- perley asked you to call here, I wonder it did not atrike you that it was the very same house P” “Oh! but I read the murder hurriedly at the time—and I remembered it imperfectly !” replied Ormaby. “Depend upon il,” rejoined Mrs. Maddox, “ Mr. Timperley must have noticed the coinci- dence: and that was why he did not like to come himeelf. So he sent you. But no matter! It was here that poor Mre. Chicklade lodged at the time. I bad known her for yeara—she had seen many an up and duwn——”’ “ Well, well,” interposed Ormsby : “ but what of Mr. Timperley in reference to that woman P” “Why, you must know, sir,” pursued Mrs. Maddox, “that the moment I heard that poor Mrs. Chicklade had been found murdered in- deed, I went and identified the corpse at the tavern I tvok possession of all the papers in AGNES, OR, BEAUTY AND PLEASURE. woman! that evening never came for her: she was murdered in the afternoon !” ; “But the letter?” ejaculated Ormsby: “you have kept it ?” “No, sir: I gave it up the very evening after the murder took place,” answered Mre. Maddox. “ Gave it up?” echoed Ormsby. ‘To whom f” “Why, sir, @ young lady came, with a great thick veil over her face, eo that I could not cutoh the slightest glimpse of ber features —~” ‘Then how do you know sho was young P” ' You shall hear presently. This lady came | and proposed to buy up every document, paper, ; letter, even tothe veriest scrap, that I might have found in Mrs. Chicklade’s box. She offered me twenty guineas; and when I saw that she wae #0 eager to have the letters . “You endeavoured to drive a better bargain f” interjected Ormsby. “OF course, sir,” replied Mre. Maddox, with a knowing look, “1 was anxious to get as much as I possibly could for the papers.” “ And no doubt,” said Ormsby, “it was with the view of selling Mr. Timyerley’s letter back to him at a good price thajr you did not give it up | into the hands of the wice p” | “Welk sir, pernaps there was something in that,” rejgined the woman, laughing : and now she helped he.:self to another glass of wine. “ But I | must tell you candidly I did not of course think that Mr. Timperley had anything to do with the murder of Mrs. Chicklade—no more than the ; young lady herself, who came to bargain about the , letters; because Winifred Barrington was already ‘in custody—she had been examined before the her bux ; and perhaps you wouldn’t believo me if! police-magistrate—and who could doubt at the I was to say that I didn’t think of reading them.” “Of course you did read them. That was natural !” interjected Ormsby. “Well, sir—and amongst those papers was a letter from Mr. Timporlev. It bore the date of only the day before; and it was evidently in an- swer to one which Mrs. Chicklade must have written to hita. He wrote in great terror, be- seeching hor tu keep silence in reference tu some discovery she had made—it expressod his wonder how she could possibly have made that discovery at all id “Did it not allude more explicitly,” inguired Urmeby, “ to the nature of the discovery itself P” “ Let me think ?” said Mrs. Maddox. “ Ah! I remember! It did allude to some papers respect~ ing @ peerage and an estate; but I don’t think it mentioned any names.” “1 daresay,” thought Ormsby to himself, “ that woman Chicklade had by some means or another discovered how Timperley had preserved the forged ducuments which. he fuund in Waldron’s vffice, and which related to my affairs.—DProceed, my good woman,” he suid, addressing himself to Mrs. Maddox. “You were telling me the con- tents of tho letter which Mr. Timperley wrote to Mrs. Chicklade. What else did be say therein P” “Oh, let me see? He-said that though it was a very large sum which she had demanded—five thousand pounds—yet ehe should have it; and he bade her mect him on tho following evening at nine o'clock, on Waterloo Brive, and he would be prepared with the amount, But alas, poor time that she waa the guilty party ?” “And why did you suppose that the young lady wanted the letters?” asked Lord Ormsby. “I naturally fancied,” rejoined Mra. Maddox, “that the lady’s character had been compromised —that she had either become a mother while un- wedded, or that she had carried on some intrigue, and that Mrs. Chicklade had been an agent or a go-between “ Ab, Icomprehend !” said Lord Ormsby. “ And therefore you concluded the bargain ?” ‘“‘T made a bargain with her and gave up the papers, Mr. Tiwperley’s letter being amongst them. I suppose the young lady saw that I was anxious to catch a glimpse of her face; and so she concluded I must bo full of curiosity with regard to her. Well, and so I naturally was. But what did she do? She actually secreted the key of the street-door; and as she went out she locked the door and dropped the key down the area. That was to prevent herself from being followed before she should have time to get to a sufficient distance from the house.” “Aad did her stratagem succeed Pi’ -cu.quitvd Ormsby, who was burning with imn¢2unce to learn the end of the narrative ,.ud see how it would again conneot itself with jr. Timperley. “I had no intention. cf, fullowing the lady,” re- plied Mrs. Maddox,—“# ough, ae I have said be- fore, I naturally felt a yreat curiosity concerning her. But clever as st) was, she was baffled by an accident — though.-"ap to this day I daresay she auspects it not.{*%& will teli you how it was, sir. ‘When aha analladt.at the house mv sarvantewoman COMMIGIOO nn S CO