Agnes Vol. 2 — page 181: what you’re looking at

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

174 AGNES; OR, BEAUTY AND PLBASURR. forgotten how on a particular day, nineteen years quivering all over. “I heard that she died ago, I listened at the door of Waldron’s private { within a year after the date of my flight and her room——this room!—¢hat door! and heard | father’s self-destruction. Yes--this intelligence you and him disputing together, 60 that all the| reached me by some accident in the far-off tremendous villanies which had been concocted ; American climo to which I had fied ;—~—and though between you suddenly burst upon my knowledge | I naturally guessed it was of a broken heart, yet with an effect that was all but annthilating.” “And yet,” ejaculated Mr. Timperley, “ you | were the real heir of the Ormsby property after all!—-you were the rightful Evelyn!” “Yes: but you did not know it then—neither lid you think 60,” rejoined the nobleman sternly. ‘And, Ah! Mr. Timperley, think you that I bave forgotten another scene which took place a few nours later on that very same day? Let me re- mind you of it! It was a handsome drawing- room at the West End. There stood Mr. Wal- jron, shrinking and trembling before me; and there was a gloriously handsome woman it was my own wife Honoria turning disdainfully away from me because I would not yield to her pajoleries and become a villain! And then the door opened—and the accomplice of all that vil- lany appeared; and this accomplice was you, Mr. Tiwperley! — you, the now respectable solicitor methought—methought "— and here Ormsby’s voice grew more and more tremulous — “ me- thought, I say, that i¢ was through blighted ambi- tion—defeated hopes of aggrandizement—bafiled pride——” “No, my lord! no!” interjected Timperley. “ I¢ was through despair on your account that the loving heart was broken !” The lawyer looked with frankness, candour, and sincerity in Ormsby’s face as he thus spoke. There was now something very different in tho expression of Mr. Timperley’s countenance from what it usually was; so that Ormsby could not possibly entertain the slightest doubt as to the man’s truthfulness in the present instance. The nobleman shook with the violence of those emo. tions which he endeavoured alike to curb and to conceal: but stronger and stronger grew thoso feelings—and at jongth, sinking upon a seat, he who rolls in his carriage, who gives splendid enter- | said in a half-dying tone, “ Tell mo—tell me how tainments, who has becomo well connected, and | whose niece will in due time shine as a peercss in England’s aristocratic galaxy !” Honoria’s last days were spent?” The lawyer also rosumed his seat; and he pro- ceeded to describe to Lord Ormsby how Honoria “But why, my lord—why,’’ asked Timperley, | had rushed after him on the day when he had fled “revert to scenes so disagreeable and to periods | which i¢ wero better to banish from the me- mory P” “‘Youp.qnostion does indeed make me ask my- relf,”” said Ormsby, in his deep-toned voice, “ why [ am remaining hero to waste words upon you, and wherefore I am extending to an hour that Appointinent which needed not to have occupied 80 precipitately, crying “ Morton, Morton! dear Morton! come back !” And be went on to tell tho nobleman how dreadfully Honoria felt his flight and mysterious silence; and ho said, “1 saw her weep over the infant Agnes, my lord, as she had hever wept before!—and she used to strain it to her bosom, murmuring your name !” Lord Ormsby groaned : he rose from his scat— more than a duzen minutes? But perhaps it is | ho pressed his hand to his brow—his lips quivered that the long pent-up feelings of my svul required | violently for a few moments. But to some extent this vent!——-perhaps it is that I am now taking my revenge upon you, such as it may be, by forcing you to retruspect upon scones stamped with the black imiquity a portion of which has cast ita shadow upon your own soul! And you recollect that scene which I was last describing ? —you remember how I burst from the room? And then you know,” added Ormsby, with the devpest solomnity, and with a voice so sepulchral that it did really seem as if it camo from the dead, “I was heard of no more!” “Ab, my lord! if you bad come back,’’ ejacu- lated Timperley,—‘ or if you had only written a single line to alleviate the horrible suspense 7 ‘Suspense? Ah!” interposed Ormsby; “the suepense of those who endured the poignant griof which their tremendous selfishness deserved when they beheld all their golden visions fading from their view! Ah, Mr. Timperley! there have been times when I have known, when I have felt, and when I have also satd that it was no light thing for a man ty flee away from his home, from his wife, and from his child! But when I found that mastering his emotions, he sat down again, saying, “Goon. What else have you to toll me P” “ JT havo but little more to say, my lord,” con- | tinued Timperley—“ unless it be that during the |! year which your wife survived your sudden flight, she never held up her head; and I frequently heard Mr. Lister say that it was not disappointed ambition which was killing hor, but it was bo- cause now that it was tvo late, her eyes wore opened toa comprchensiun of all your good and noble qualitics, my lord !" ‘“‘Is this true, Mr, Timporley? is this true?” asked Ormsby in a tremulous voice. “As | have a soul to be saved!” exclaimed the lawyer emphatically. “My God!"—and now Lord Ormeby’s omo-. tions burst forth beyund the power of control; the strong man wept and sobbed like a child: the rock was smitten—the waters were gushing forth: the stone was rolled away from the sepulchre of his heart, and light dawned in upon it! For several minutes did that ebullition of feel- ing last; and during this interval Orussby’s coun- the wife whom I loved and of whom 1 was proud, | tenance was concealed from Timporley’s view, lather —~-~s-2 : had become imbued with the wickcdnesa of hor | eithor being averted whon he wept so bitterly, or being buried in his hands when he subbed so con- “ My lord, you are wrong! you aro wrong!” | Vulsively. And now, as ho wiped away his tears exclaimed Timperley. pmo phatically. “IT awear it!” he udded, and slowly turned his looks upon the lawyer, tho | latter was struck by the idea that somo great and Do Hof attempt to deceive me,’ said Ormsby | signal change had ikon place in Ormaby’s aspeet. EOMRRIC LOO SS