Agnes, or, Beauty and Pleasure — page 54: what you’re looking at

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

et es re ES ER ETE eee ome ene - _ ———_—=——— 46 AGNES: OR, BEAUTY AND PLEASURE. sion of calm resolye on the countenance of the former—the placid determination of one who had made up her mind to a particular course of action, unless anything should transpire to suggest a change of policy. Mrs. Chicklade was attired with the same gaudiness as on the preceding day; so that she looked like a mummy dressed up in flaunting apparel. She simpered and smiled to a certain extent, but merely for the purpose of con- ciliation—and not to enact the part of one who felt that her power over another was so slight as to require the accessory means of cajolery and sycophancy. “* Now tell me,” said Miss Neale, adopting some- what of an air of command, “ what do you know of him?” *‘ He is in London, as doubtless you fancied,” replied the old woman; “or else you yourself would scarcely be in the metropolis likewise.” ** ‘Yes—I conjectured that he must be in Lon- don,” said Miss Neale. ‘“ Do you know anything of bis pursuits— his occupations—his proceed- ings ?” “‘ T have seen him on two or three occasions in the neighbourhood of St. John’s Wood,” rejoined Mrs. Chicklade. “ That is a little way beyond the Regent’s Park <3 I know it well,” interrupted Cicely. ‘ When a girl IL lived in London ; and I am well acquainted with its principal neighbourhoods, JBesides, I have acquaintances at St. John’s Wood. But pro- ceed. I feel convinced that you can tell me more. You are not a woman to miss an opportunity of playing the part of a spy in respect to any one whom you may have ever known.” “Tam going to tell you all I know,” answered Mrs. Chicklade. ‘He in whom you are interested, Visits two young ladies——”’ * What kind of ladies?” asked Cicely, a slight flush flitting over her countenance. “Respectable young ladies, and eminently beau- tiful,” rejoined the old woman. ‘‘ They live at a house called Sidney Villa 74 “ Ah!” ejaculated Cicely, for a moment struck with astonishment. ‘ You mean Miss Lister and Miss Evelyn P” “I do,’ replied Mrs. Chicklade. know them ?” she asked. “They visit at this house,” answered Cicely : “they are the same to whom I just now alluded. Miss Evelyn was here two or three daysago; and Miss Lister was here yesterday. It was my in- tention to’ call upon those young ladies—they are cousins—to-morrow: but after what you have told me” and here Miss Neale stopped short, looking bewildered as well as afflicted, and even alarmed. “Yes, it is true,” continued Mrs. Chicklade, “that he visits at that house ; and after what you have just said, your position evidently becomes all the more perplexing and difficult; so that you stand in all the greater need of an astute, clever, and discreet assistant like myself. I am a woman who = “ And why think you,” asked Miss Neale, who had not heeded Mrs. Chicklade’s latter observa- tions,—“ and why think you,” she said, her voice having a certain hollowness in it, as if under the mnfluence of powerful emotions agitating in her bosom, but which she was endeavouring with all “Do you her power to control,—“ and what think you is his object in visiting at Sidney Villa? Those young ladies are of a respectability which forbids the thought that his aim can be a base one.” “Then perhaps he means marriage,” gaid Mrs. Chicklade; and with a furtive look she watched | the effect of the suggestion she had just thrown out. Cicely Neale was already paler than usual: but now for a moment she became ghastly with the death-like pallor which overspread her counte- nance : her lips themselves—those lips which were naturally of so rich a redness—became white; and they quivered as she seemed to gasp for the power of utterance. At length she said in a low deep voice, but rather as if musing to herself than actually addressing the old woman, “ And he dares to think of marriage—with another !” “There can be little doubt of it!” said Mrs. Chicklade. “Indeed, I heard a whisper in the neighbourhood to this effect 3: “Tt is false, woman!” ejaculated Miss Neale, with a sudden fiereeness of tone; and her eyes, which naturally were so soft in their expression, flashed forth fire, as if the pure deep blue of the summer-night’s heaven became all in an instant vivid with a blaze of lightning. ‘You only tell me this because you think that you will render your services all the more necessary to me !” Cicely had rightly fathomed Mrs. Chicklade’s motive: but the old woman met her blazing looks with an audacious hardihood; and resolving to stick to the untruth, she said, ‘ Yes, I have heard that report in the neighbourhood of St. John’s Wood. If you disbelieve me, go and inquire for yourself.” Miss Neale again grew profoundly agitated — but rather with the warfare of inward feelings, than with those that were outwardly betrayed,— unless it were by a returning ghastliness of look and a momentary quivering of the ashy lips— those lips which seemed of so luscious a beauty when full of their rich redness, but which looked absolutely hideous when the vital colouring had thus fled from them. * And has that same rumour said more?” she at length asked, in a hollow voice: “has it as- scribed his attentions to either of those ladies in particular ?” Mrs. Chicklade was on the very point of boldly proclaiming one of the cousins at random, when i€ struck her that she might overshoot the mark, and that the more she enveloped the whole affair in mystery, uncertainty, and doubt, the more certain it was that her own services would be engaged by Miss Neale. She therefore said, * I have not as yet been able to glean so deep an insight into all that is progressing at Sidney Villa. But if you know those young ladies, you are aware that they are surpassingly beautiful.” * Yes—I have seen them,” said Cicely, heaving a profound sigh; “ and they are indeed the love- liest girls my eyes ever rested upon. Oh! I feel,” she added, as she flung a despairing glance into a mirror over the mantelpiece, “ that I myself am not to be compared to either of them !” “Take courage, my dear—take courage,” said Mrs. Chicklade, in a half soothing, half patron- ising tone: but she stopped short, and even quailed for an instant, at the look of intense loathing com (E(0)