Agnes: A Tale of the Streets — page 37: what you’re looking at

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

AGNES; OB; BRAUTY AND PLEASURE. solf,and procure the poison in some remote and | obecure quarter of the town Get emall quan- tities at two or three different shops, if needful Multiply your precautions if you will !” “This can be done,” replied Cicely. “But how to convey the poison to you? If I come to you again I might be suspected ——” “You need not come again,” interrupted Tim- perley : “everything can be otherwise arranged— aye,and in a manner that shall utterly bewilder the gaol authorities asto the person whom they are to suepect of bringing me the means of death.” “Proceed! proceed!” said Cicely, glancing to- werds her aunt, who seemed as if she were re- covering from the violent fit of affliction into which she had fallen. “Tell your father-in-law, Lord Mendlesham, that 1 wish to sce him particularly—tell him that ho must come. Deliver this message secretly— let no one know of it besides bim into whose ear it is tu be whispered. He will not refuse ; and surely, surely, Cicely, you have tact enough to induce him on some pretext or another to become the bearer of a small packet ? Tell bim it is snuff apything, in short - “ Yes—this can be managed, no doubt!” said Cicely. “But one word more!” ‘Ab !” interjected the prisone?, with one of those half-sinister significant looks which were so characteristic of him. “1 understand you! Call upon Mr. Campbell, the lawyer next door to my house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields—and be will show you the draft of the deed which has been duly prepared and which only requires my sigvature. The instant that Lord Mendlesham shall have been to me, I will send for Campbell and will sin the paper. But if you deceive or disappoint me, I will leave everything in such a way that at ysur aunt’s death it shall go to a hospital! Now do you understand me ?” “I do. It is a bargain,” replied Cicely; “and you may reckon uporf my share of the compact being fulfilled. J shall not see you again—though es a matter of course we shail presently part as if I were to return in a few days.” “lush! your aunt !” “Cicely my dear,” said Mrs. Timperley. “I hupe that you have been administering cansola- tions -————” “Nothing oan be more consoling,” interrupted the lawyer, “than the discourse which | have had with Cicely. She is a good girl—and whatever may happen tu me, Mrs. Timperley—whether now or later—whether as the result of this unfortunate business, or in the ordinary course of nature, Cicely must inherit everything we possess!” “ Don’t talk of i¢ now, Thomas! don’t talk of it now!” sobbed the lady, with another outburst of grief, during which Timperley bent a look of the most sinister significancy upon Mra. Hardress, whispering in a low hoarse vuice, “ Remember, Cicely ! take care of the game you play! A for- tune is at stake for you!” “If I did not mean to fulfil my pledge, I should tell you sv candidly at once,” replied Cicely. ““And now, my dear,” ssid the prisoner to his wife, “I think you had better leave me for the present, and take dear Cicely away with you. She ie much affected——-In fact, we are all three affected ———” ‘Bal “When shall we come again?” sobbed Mrs, Timperley, ; “When? Ob! the day after to-morrow, at about the same time,” rejoined the prisvner. “ And now good bye, good bye.” Tt was thus that he cut short the leave-teking, as if it were something more than his feelings could endure; and as the turnkey came to open the door of the cell, Cicely exclaimed in a voice which sounded as if it were broken with grief, “We shall come again, uncle, the day after to- morrow.” . In the evening Mrs. Hardress— dressed in the plainest attire, and wearing a thick veil over her countenance — descended the private ataircase which led from the vicinage of her boudoir down into the garden, and to which allusion has before been made in those chapters that treated->f the circumstances atiending the ducLgfth terminated so fatally for Theodore Clifford. Thus disguised, Mrs. Hardress visited three or four chemists’ shops in different parts of the metropolis; and at each she purchased a very small quantity of laudanum, pretending that it was for the toothache. In nu instance was the quantity thus purchased suffi- cient to destroy lite; and as if the precautions thus taken were not sutticient, Ciccly shifted a black mantle over her shawl, or the shaw! over the mantle, and changed her black veil for a groen one, in the intervals between the visits which she paid to the respective chemists’ shops. Finally . she returned to the villa at Bayswater, confident that she had accomplished the undertaking with- out incurring the slightest suspicion of any sinister design, or Jeaving a clue to the detection of who she really was. But here we must take leave of Mrs. Hardress for tbe present, and follow in the footsteps of her husband Hector, who had set off to pay a visit to Andrew Hailes at the same time that Cicely had gone to see ber aunt in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, and subsequently her uncle in Newgate. Mr. Hailes was seated in his apartment at the hotel where he had taken up his quarters. A very handsome French dressing-gown loosely wrapped his form, as he sat, or rather half reelined himself in an eas: chair; for he was smoking a meer- schaum after luncheon, this being about two o’clock in the afternoon, There was a small ante- room, in which Hector Hardress found the valet Cesario leaning with a negligent air on the win- dow-sill, and looking down into the street; eo that he did not immediately observe the visitor's pre- sence, the outer dvor of the suite having stood open. “Is your master witb'n?” demanded Hector, speaking in Italian; for be was not aware that the valet understood English Cesario turned towards him, and for a moment gave a start and flung a strange look upon Hec- tor: but the latter, thinking it was merely the natural confusion of the youth at being surprised in that negligent posture, took no farther heed of the circumstance. “Yes, signor—my master is within;” and im- mediately throwing open the inner door, the valet announced the Hon. Mr. Hardress. “ Ah, wy dear fellow,” oried Hailes, “I am de- lighted to sce you! Pray sit down.” “We have a great deal to talk about,” eaid Heotor, grasping the youth’s hand. , MIGIOO CO S CO