Agnes, or, Beauty and Pleasure — page 182: what you’re looking at

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

174 AGNES; OR, BEAUTY AND PLEASURE. EE aT BR Te a LT Ta eT TTT TANT I ea ge er a 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 efter the date of my flight and her room this room!—that door! and heard father’s self-destruction. Yes—this intelligence you and him disputing together, so that all the reached me by some accident in the far-off tremendous villanies which had been concocted American. clime to which I had fled;—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 annibilating.” methought—methought "— and here Ormsby’s “And yet,” ejaculated Mr, Timperley, “ you voice grew more and more tremulous — “ me- were the real heir of the Ormsby property after thought, I say, that it was through blighted ambi- all!—you were the rightful Evelyn!” _tion—defeated hopes of aggrandizement—bafiled “Yes: but you did not know it thew—neither | pride did you think so,” rejoined the nobleman sternly.| “No, my lord! no!” interjected Timperley. “ And, Ab! Mr, Timperley, think you that I have | “ It was through despair on your account that the forgotten another scene which took place a few | loving heart was broken !” hours later on that very same day? Let me re. The lawyer looked with frankness, candour, and mind you of it! It was a handsome drawing- | sincerity in Ormsby’s face as he thus spoke. room at the West End. Toere stood Mr. Wal- | There was now something very different in the dron, shrinking and trembling before me; and _ expression of Mr. Timperley’s countenance from. there was agloriously handsome woman it was what it usually was; so that Ormsby could not my own wife Honoria turning disdainfully | possibly entertain the slightest doubt as to the away from me because I would not yield to her | man’s truthfulness in the present instance, The cajoleries and become a villain! And then the; nobleman shook with the violence of those emo- door opened—and the accomplice of all that vil- | tions which he endeavoured alike to curb and to lany appeared; and this accomplice was you, Mr. | conceal: but stronger and stronger grew those Timperley! — you, the now respectable solicitor | feelings—and at length, sinking upon a seat, he who rolls in his carriage, who gives splendid enter- | said in a half-dying tone, “ Tell me—tell me how tainments, who has become well connected, and | Honoria’s last days were spent?” whose niece will in due time shine as apeeress| Tho lawyer also resumed his seat; and he pro- in England’s aristocratic galaxy !” 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 | so precipitately, crying ‘‘ Morton, Morton! dear which it were better to banish from the me-! Morton! come back!’ And he went on to tell the mory P” /nobleman how dreadfully Honoria felt his flight “Your question does indeed make me ask my- and mysterious silence; and he said, “I saw her gelf,’”” said Ormsby, in his deep-toned voice, “ why | weep over the infant Agnes, my lord, as she had I am remaining here to waste words upon you, | never wept before!—and she used to strain it to and wherefore i am extending to an hour that | her bosom, murmuring your name!” appointment which needed not to have occupied| Lord Ormsby groaned : he rose from his seat— more than a dozen minutes? But perhaps it is | he pressed his hand to his brow—his lips quivered that the long pent-up feelings of my soul required | violently for a few moments. But to some extent this vent!—perhaps it is that I am now taking mastering his emotions, he sat down again, saying, my revenge upon you, such as it may be, by “ Goon. What else have you to tell me ?” forcing you to retrospect upon scenes stamped “IT have but little more to say, my lord,” con- with the black, iniquity a portion of which has | tinued Timperley—“ unless it be that during the cast its shadow upon yourown soul! And you, year which your wife survived your sudden flight, recollect that scene which I was last describing? | she never held up her head; and [I frequently —you remember how I burst from the room? heard Mr. Lister say that it was not disappointed And then you know,” added Ormsby, with the | ambition which was killing her, but it was be- deepest solemnity, and with a voice so sepulchral | cause now that it was too late, her eyes were that it did really seem as if it came from the | opened to a comprehension of all your good and dead, “I was heard of no more!” noble qualities, my lord !” “Ab, my lord! if you had come back,” ejacu-| ‘‘Is this true, Mr. Timperley? is this true?” lated Timperley,—* or if you had only written a | asked Ormsby in a tremulous voice, single line to sileviate the horrible suspense s “ As [ have a soul to be saved!” exclaimed the “Suspense? Ab!” interposed Ormsby; “the | lawyer emphatically. suspense of those who endured the poignant grief| “My God!’—and now Lord Ormsby’s emo- which their tremendous selfishness deserved when | tions burst forth beyond the power of control; the they beheld all their golden visions fading from strong man wept and sobbed likea child: the their view! Ah, Mr. Timperley! there have been | rock was smittea—the waters were gushing forth: times when I have known, when I have felt, and | the stone was rolled away from the sepulchre of when I have also said that it was no light thing | his heart, and light dawned in upon it! for a man to flee away from his home, from his! For several minutes did tkat ebullition of feel- wife, and from his child! But when I found that ing last; and during this interval Ormsby’s coun- the'wife whom I loved aud of whom I was proud, tenance was concealed from Timperley’s view. had become imbued with the wickedness of her | either being averted when he wept so bitterly, or father “4 | being buried io his hands when he sobbed so con- “ My lord, you are wrong! you are wrong!” | vulsively. And now, as he wiped away his teara exclaimed Timperley. “I swear it!’ he added, | and slowly turned his looks upon ‘the lawyer, the emphatically. latter was struck by the idea that some great and * Do not attempt to deceive me,” said Ormsby | signal change had taken place in Ormsby’s aspoot. GOMIGDOOKS.;CO 3