Agnes, or, Beauty and Pleasure — page 113: what you’re looking at

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

Nt Ne ee a | at enn il ed Te el. ee eee mre pi a eer ——_, AGNES ; | CR, BEAUTY AND PLEASURE. \— Sa LZ ~- a escaped with nothing more serious than the alarm and consternation which the incident had left Pehind it. Cicely’s explanations were soon given, and were as a matter of course fully believed by those who listened to them. She said that on retiring to her chamber she felt no inclination to sleep, and that she had therefore sat down over one of the books which she found there. She read for some time— until becoming sleepy, she was about to commence the process of disapparelling herself, when she thought she heard a door open upon the landing. Fearing that Miss Evelyn might be ill—or at all events convinced that something unusual was taking place—Cicely went on to say that she issued forth from her owr room; and perceiving that the door of Miss Evelyn’s chamber was half open, she at once hastened thither. “Then, to my consternation,” proceeded Cicely, “JT beheld the two men; and a ory escaped my No. 14,.—AqNES, i Wy <a SA irs lhgx” * a SIE h se ak Ke bd eae) / lips. I wonder that you”—now addressing herself to the servants—“ heard it not. The burglars were instantaneously seized with a panic—and they fled. I do not hesitate to confess that for some few mo- ments I was so overwhelmed with terror as to be almost in a fainting condition: I had no power to give vent to another cry, nor even to move from the chair on which I had sunk down. If the wretches had only known what the state of my feeling was, they would not have hurried off so — precipitately :—but crime often makes cowards of those who are seeking to perpetrate it.” The matter continued to be discussed for some while longer: but it was evident to Cicely that Agnes did not for an instant suspect that one of the masked individuals was Hector Hardress; and it did not suit Miss Neale’s purpose to afford any enlightening information upon the point. No ap- prehension was entertained that the supposed bur- glars would take it into their heads to return; and COMmiclboool C@©