Agnes Vol. 2 — page 180: what you’re looking at

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

AGNES; OR, BRAUTY AND PLBASURR. foul forgery! But, Ah! Mr. Timperley, you might suffer all the consoquences of your past mis- deeds, and the memories of my father-in-law and my wife might remain subject to any obloquy or suspicion which mey at any time have been thrown upon them, were it not that I possess a daughter who I now know to be the most virtuous, the most arniable, and the most generous of her sex! Yes ~-J have sufficiently watched her proceedings, and by other means have [ sufficiently oapied her ac- tions! Ab, you start at that word espied 2? You doubtless think it strango that a father should place epies to watch his daughter! But I tell you again that I will believe in no human virtue yntil 1 shall have tried it: I will have faith in nothing which is not incontrovertibly proved unto me! Well, then, I repeat, 1 am now satisfied with my Agnes; and ere maay hours shall have ekapsed will she be folded in my arms. I think, Mr. Tim- perloy,” added Lord Ormsby, rising from his seut, “that we can have now nothing more to say. We have sufficiently discussed the past ;—~and as for the present, I have dnly tu take possesaion of these deeds which you have looked out and sorted for me.” “ But ag to the future, my lord,” interjected the attorney, with an obsequious vow, “if you should need my professional services - “Kiest assured, Mr. Timperloy,” said Ormsby, breaking in upun the lawyer’s speeeh with all the cynical bitterness of a retort, “rest assured that if I require your services, 1 shall not hesitate to avail myself of them. And who can tell? I have seen the Red Indian in the Far West have recourse tv the serpent tu borrow that serpent’s venom where- iu te dip the points of his arrows ere going forth to fight an enemy. Why, thea, should nut l—~” “ My lord, I pray you to remember,” said Mr. Tituporloy, with a malignant gleaming of his small reptile-like eyes, “that your illustration is one sumewlat calculated tq give offence. Unless in- deed Ha! Ha!”—and Mr. Timperley suddenly deemed it expedient to change his look and tone ; “ your lordship is pleased to be facetious !” “Ah! facetious?’ was the curt ejaculation that broke from Ormsby’s lips. “ Yes—doubtless one bas a bumuur for facetiousness after being knocked about the world for some nineteen years as | have been! And think you not, Mr. Timperley, that it is enough to make a man merry and put him into good humour with the entire human raco, to have seen what I have seen and to have knuwn what I bave known? Perhaps you will next ask mo to come and dance at sumo ball or take my part in a merry-making? Louk at this bair! Yuu knuw what my age is—and you can tuil therviure whethor a person in hia forty-fourth year ought in the natural course uf thisge to be as groy av T amP Qn!” he exclaimed, with the supremest scorn alike in his tone aud in the ex- pressiun of his countenance, “it was a lucky hit va your part, Mr. Tiuwpurley, when you attributed facetiousness unto me /” There was 80 much withering irony in the lan- guage thus addressed by Lord Ormsby to the atturney, that the latter was almust overwhelmed by the puwer of his words. “\ 1 beg your lordship’s pardon,” he said, shrink- ing, quailing, and trembling: “ J am sure I did nut mean to oflend~—* 173 “EHnough, Mr. Timperley | enough!” inter: rupted the nubleman. Lord Ormsby now proceeded to secure about his person the various packages of papers which Mr. Timperley had prepared for him; and when he had done this, ho turned towards the lawyer, on whom he fixed his brilliant black eyes with a look that might pierce into the very depths of the soul ; and he said, “ You are sure that every requisite paper is there P—that nothing is wanting ?” “I am sure of it, my lord,” answered Tim- perley. ‘ Your lordship must comprehend that if it euited me to give you any of tho papers, it was to my interest to put them alZ into your posses- sion.” ‘It was thus that I calculated,” remarked Ormsby : then pulling from his pocket-book a number of bank-notes, he went on to observe, “Ulere are five hundred pounds. On the day when you sec the newspapers announcing that my claims have been recognised by the Government, and that nothing remains to be fulfilled but the formality of obtaining the recognition of my title by a Committee of Privileges of the House of Lorda, you may send one of your clerks to me, and I will romit you a similar amount.” Mr. Timperley bowed very low on beholding tho bank-notes; but it was almost to the vory floor that he bent when he received thia additional proof of what ho conceived to be Ormsby’s munificence. The nobleman comprehended what was passing in his mind; and with one of those withering sneers which so often swept over his countenance, ho sald, “ Do not think, Mr. Timperley, that.you owe anything to mere abstract gonerosity on wy part. It 1 not a0! I love you not sufficiently to give you a crust to save you from starvation if I be- held you plunged down in the deepest vortex of misery. Lut if 1 cannot be generous towards you as a fellow-creature, I can at least be just while dealing with you as 8 professional man. You kept hose papers as & matter of calculation, with the hope that some day or another they would produce # recompense. Well then, you have served me by so keeping them; because, although it is perfectly true that with the knowledge that I now possess of the whole chain of lineage, step by step and luok by link, I might instruct any othor clever practitioner to get together the requisite docu- ments, 16 would novertheless be a work of time, trouble, and expense. All this you have saved me; and you are therefore doserving of your re- ward just in the same way that a labourer igs worthy of his hire. Do not therefore for a single moment flatter yourself that it is through any friendly fevling towards you peraunally that I am thus acting: it is from @ sense of duty and of jus- tice only.” * I do not the less thank your lordship,” said Mr. Timperley, with an obscquious bow. “ But 1, am grieved to find that there is still so much bit- erness lurking in your soul towards me.” “ Bitterness towards you ?” exclaimed Ormaby. * Bitterness P” he repeated: and then he stepped 6p i Re eee SR _y back a pace or two, and slowly surveyed tho lawyor | from head to foot and frum foot to head, wot ' to assure himaclf that the individual thus standing befure him could possibly entertain any reasunable doubt as to the existence of such cause of bitter- “Think you, Mr. Timperley, thay i have; GOH GoOo SS (c@