Agnes, or, Beauty and Pleasure — page 165: what you’re looking at

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

AGNES; OR, BEAUTY AND PLEASURE. But why had he obtained admission thither? why did he constitute himself one of the ominous twelve on whom her fate depended? Winifred knew that it could not possibly be to ensure her condemnation: she was equally well convinced that his purpose was to befriend her. She ex- perienced a sensation as if her heart were rising up into her throat with the hopeful emotions that were now excited within her ;—and as she glanced towards the barristers’ table, she encountered the looks of Mr. Wardour. He saw that she had only just perceived the friend who had by some means obtained admission to the jury-box: he compre- hended what was passing in her mind; and having flung upon her that significant look, he again turned his eyes towards the counsel for the prose- cution. But Winifred felt no longer as if she were utterly friendless in the midst of the tribu- nal; and her soul was fortified. The counsel for the prosecution finished his ad- dress; and the witnesses were now summoned in due order. The first witnesses were the two police-constables who had given their evidence before the magistrate as already detailed in a pre- vious chapter. One of them, in deposing tu the circumstances of the arrest at Mrs. Slater’s house, identified the ring which he found upon the table in Winifred’s room; and he repeated the words which in her excitement she had uttered on the oceasion—“ You know not what it has cost me to obtain it !” Charles De Vere was now called into the witness-box. He stated that he was a clerk in the Home Office at the time when the murder occurred, but that he had since obtained the ap- pointment of junior paid attaché to the British Embassy at the Court of Naples. With the same clearness and precision that he had displayed before the magistrate a month back—and with the same unmistakable air of one who only came forward in the discharge of a melancholy duty — our young hero gave his evidence. When speak: ing of all he had seen pass betwixt the prisoner and Mrs. Chicklade in the bye-lane, Charles re- peated those words which had burst from Wini- fred’s lips on the occasion :—“ There is the feeling of a tigress within me !”—and although this fact was well known before, it nevertheless produced a powerful sensation amidst the audience. The next witness was Mr. Meadowbank, the surgeon, who gave evidence precisely similar to that which he had adduced when before the ma- gistrate. Then came Mrs. Slater; and this worthy woman interspersed her answe)3 to the questions put to her, with vehemently u’tered eulogies upon Winifred’s character. The omnibus conductor and Miss Evelyn’s housekeeper, Rachel, were Summoned to repeat the depositions they had made before the magistrate ; and the case for the prosecution was closed. In the meanwhile Mr. Timperley had returned into the court; and having worked his way through the crowd, he had resumed his stand in the immediate vicinity of Mr. Wardour’s place. : Be it understood that Mr. Timperley was not the solicitor for the defence: other lawyers had been engaged to conduct it and to draw up the briefs for Mr, Wardour :—but it was considered by those present to whom Mr. Timperley was known, that 157 interest and curiosity on behalf of the grand- daughter of his client Mr. Barrington, The case for the prosecution being closed, Mr. Wardour had now to rise to enter upon his defence on behalf of the prisoner. Just at the very mo- ment that he was thus rising, the learned gentle- man flung a rapid glance upon Winifred. It was one of those looks which are without significancy to the common observer, but which are full of meaning with those between whom a secret rests. Though so short and transient, there was indeed for Winifred a world of meaning in that look. It was full of the most earnest appeal and almost plaintive entreaty on the part of that most excel- lent man, that he might be allowed to take his own course and embody in his defence whatso- ever had been communicated to him privately by Winifred. But the young girl simply shook her head, while her features assumed an expression of mournfullest resignation, blended with the firm- ness of a heroine. Mr. Wardour heaved a proe found sigh, which he however concealed under that slight cough with which a public orator is wont to collect the powers of liis voice ere entering upon his speech. The profoundest silence now reigned throughout the court; and Mr. Wardour began his address to the jury. In a prologue, couched in the most pathetic language, Mr. Wardour gave a sketch of the Bar- rington family, showing how the poor old grand- father had been a prisoner for five-and-twenty years in Whitecross Street, and how he was the plaintiff in one of those interminable Chancery suits which have proved the scandal and disgrace of British law and justice. He described how Winifred had lost her father when only eight years of age—how at fifteen she had lost her mother— and how for about a twelvemonth afterwards she had lived with a widowed aunt, until that relation was likewise summoned away from this world by the cold hand of death. * And now,” continued Mr. Wardour, ‘com- menced the most serious trials which the unfortu- nate prisoner at the bar had known down to the date of which I am speaking. Alone as it were in the world—having just attended the remains of a fond relative to the grave—having parted from a cousin of about her own age, whom the misfor- tunes which struck this doomed family blow upon blow, had sent to sea—Winifred Barrington, at the age of sixteen, as I tell you, was left alone in the world. But there is even something worse than mere loneliness: it is when the position of the struggling individual is hampered by the wants and necessities of another who has to be fostered and cared for. Such was Winifred’s position: for she had not merely to think of herself—she had to think of her grandsire likewise. A protectcr he could not be to her; for all his energies and powers were circumscribed to his prison-house— and beyond the walls thereof his supervision in re» spect to this young girl could not range. And how do we find Winifred Barrington behaving? Did she abandon herself to despair? did she succumb to temptationP No!—she encountered her destiny with the courage of a heroine; and she began to toil arduously for her bread. Yes—she toiled not to support herself alone, but to minister to the comforts of her aged, helpless, captive grandsire. it was only natural he should experience a lively | You have heard from the lips of that highly re- -_~+---— ——-—- COMmicooolkks ee ae