Agnes, or, Beauty and Pleasure — page 158: what you’re looking at

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

160 AGNES; OR, BEAUTY AND PLEASURE. ee ee ee ee eee your own self-respect, Hector—and if you would|confessed that Luke Corbet has aided me on aveid drawing down the laugh of ridicule on your | several occasions. I like not a spy any more than heai—you will abstain from any disturbance | you can like him: the man who has sold his ser- Within the walls of this hotel.” vices to me at a price, would sell them to any one “ By God!” vociferated Hardress, springing up | else for a higher bribe. Therefore, if you and I from his seat, “it is the foulest trick But | are to live together, I should propose to reward pshaw! it can’t possibly hold good !” him liberally and discharge him, but with a cha- “ Do not endeavour to delude your mind with | racter that will obtain for him a situation else- this fallacious hope,” responded Cicely. “The| where. If, on the contrary,’ continued Miss most foolish of all men is he who deceives him- | Neale, speaking as if the alternatives which she self.” | thus put were a matter of indifference to her, “ But it is a cheat—a fraud!” cried Hector, the | “ we do not live together, you can of course dis- fury of whose rage was subdued by the sickening pose of your valet as you like—but I shall reward sense of the fact that there might be really more | him.” validity in his acknowledgment of Miss Neale as; While Miss Neale was thus speaking, Hector his wife than he was willing to admit. “ It is | Hardress was reflecting with a calmer deliberation utterly impossible that I can be held bound by | than hehad yet experienced since the develop- any such absurd stratagem! What? just because | ment of the stratagem whereof he was the dupe. I have called you my wife in the presence of a | He saw that if he were really tied by indissoluble servant or two 4 | bonds to Cicely—if she were indeed his lawful “ Listen, Hector!” interrupted Cicely ; “and | wife—it would be useless for him to assume a hos- at least study to envisage your position in all its tile attitude; for by so doing the whole truth bearings. Not for a moment do I hesitate to eon- | would become known to the world and he would fess that a trick has been perpetrated on my part: | be unmercifully laughed at in society. If there- but let us see to what extent all its details are | fore the marriage was actually valid, he felt that ramified. In the first place I have your agree- iit would be better to make a merit of necessity, ment, duly signed anc attested, to the effect that to put a good face upon the affair, and to pretend in ten days you will make me your wife. At the | that it was altogether a love-mateh; so that in- expiration of that time we appear in Edinburgh: | stead of experiencing ridicule, he would become you speak of me as your wife in the presence of | the object of additional interest in the sphere in the chambermaid, the landlady, and the waiter: | which he moved. He in consequence resolved to you call me Mrs. Hardress—you seem in their| take advice upon the subject, and ascertain estimation to be straining for every opportunity | exactly how he really did stand with regard to his to give them to understand and to impress it upon | lady-companion. them that I am really your wife. But you do| It must not however be supposed that beeause more! You write to my aunt, telling her that I | he came to this determination, or because he was am your wife—apologizing for our clandestine | enabled to reflect deliberately, he was either com- union—declaring that you will shortly present me | pletely cool or resigned to kis lot. Nothing of to your family — invoking that aunt’s bless-| the sort. It was merely that his rage was much ing 4 | subdued by the consciousness of the inutility of “Ob, but this is monstrous, Cicely!” exclaimed | displaying it, and that he felt himself to be ina Hector, stamping bis foot with impotent rage. | position where it was advisable to act with policy ‘* That aunt of your’s is doubtless a creation of the | rather than with passion. fancy!” “ Cicely,” he said, “ I am going out for an hour. “What?” ejaculated Miss Neale, laughing: | I do not hesitate to confess that my object is to “‘ Mrs. Timperley a creation of the fancy ?” ascertain to what extent I am really enmeshed by ““Mrs. Timperley!” echoed Hardress, with re« | the toils you have laid to ensnare me.” newed consternation. “ By all means do so!” responded Cicely, with ‘Yes, to be sure!” rejoined Cicely: “that isthe | an air of calm confidence. “I cannot have the aunt to whom you have written; and the letter slightest objection. But remember that if you * has already gone to the post, enclosed in one from | run away altogether, I shall not be the less your myself, dated from Edinburgh, and written in a | wife—and I shall hasten to London to seek you at strain not very dissimilar to your own.” your father’s wansion.” Once more was Hardress rendered utterly, “I pledge myself,” rejoined Hector, “ that I will aghast: he was crushed and overwhelmed. But come back in one hour. Whatever be the result suddenly recollecting something, he exclaimed of the inquiries I am about to institute, you and I furiously, “ Then that villam Luke is your accom- | must come to an amicable understanding to- plice !” gether.” “An accomplice do you call it?” said Miss| “No doubt of it,” answered Cicely. Neale quietly. “Well, I at once admit that he| Hector inclined his head slightly by way of has succoured me in my undertakings . salutation—snatched up his hat—and hastened “Ah, by heaven! I suspect something!” ejacu- from the room. He met Luke Corbet upon the lated Hector, upon whose brain light after light stairs; but he stopped not to say a word tohis was bursting. “That scene at Sidney Villa—— valet: he was determined to take no step of any tell me, Cicely, it was not accidental—you were important nature until he should have first con- forewarned—you were there on purpose—it was | sulted an advocate with respect to his true position all a deep-laid plot—and this is the result ?” towards Cicely. , “It is useless for us now to descend into these Tmmediately after his departure from the hotel, details,” replied Cicely. ‘Let us speak of those | Luke Corbet—who had been upon the watch, aud things which immediately concern us. I have | who was most anxious to know how matters pro- ee a ee ee ee er ee - _—S 2 ee eee oe. 8s oe owe = CGomichbooks cor