Agnes, or, Beauty and Pleasure — page 222: what you’re looking at

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

214 said she should ever remember it in her prayers. I myself was just fresh upon town then; and I recollect that I sympathized with her. € year Jater I should have laughed at her. But, Ab! you will be surprised for you do not seem to know it——-but that very Mrs. Chicklade ma * What of ber ?” demanded Ormsby hastily. “She was the landlady of this house—yes, the landlady of this house twenty years ago— who turned poor Lucy Maitland out into the streets when she was abandoned by her seducer and had become destitute !” “Good heavens! is it possible?” exclaimed Ormesby. overtook that vile 4voman !” “ But would you believe it P” cried Mrs, Mad- dox, as a recollection struck her, ‘‘ Mrs. Chicklade | told me when she was lodging here a few weeks before her death, that she had somewhere or | another fallen in with Lucy Maitland “What! at that time?” ejaculated Ormsby. “Yes—at that time. me where, or how, or under what circumstances . she had met her. Perbaps she thought that I might interfere with some plans which she herself had conceived ~ ** And thus poor Lucy Maitland lives! all events is certain!” exclaimed Ormsby. “Or at least that she was living about thirteen That at AGNES 5; OR, BEAUTY AND PLEASURE. But she would not fell | her s* “Did she tell you who her betrayer was ?” asked Mrs. Maddox. ** No,” was the response. ‘She mentioned nob ' his name.” “ Neither to me did she ever mention his name,” said the women. ‘She often spoke of him—she ‘loved him well—as I also had loved my betrayer ! Ah, I daresay it is the common story of all us un- fortunate women!—one tale suits the case of pretty nearl. all!” “Ab! but I think you said that Lucy Maitland was different ?” exclaimed Ormsby. “Oh, yes! she would not go astray,” ejaculated “Ah! a terrible retribution -at length ; Mrs. Maddox, * Now look you, let us compare notes and see ex- | actly how it was,” said Ormsby ; “ for this isa nar- rative sufficiently interesting to dwell upen. I met her that night, and she toid me how she had been ~ abandoned by her seducer, and how her landlady | had bidden her go forth into the streets and obtain money as many other women did. » And I relieved “She came home,” interjected Mrs. Maddox, “and said that she had met a young man who had been her saviour. She was deeply thankful!” “She told me where she lived,” pursued Ormsby, ‘and the next day I called here. To tell you the truth, I had my doubts in reference to her story, and I was determined to see whether I had been or fourteen months ago is certain,” said Mrs. Mad- | deceived or not.” dox; “because that was the time when Mrs. Chicklade told me ao.” “If she told you that she was virtuous except in 'reference to him whom she loved and who bad be- “Have you lived in this house for twenty long | trayed her,” said Mrs. Maddox, “ she told you years ?” inquired Ormeby. “Ob, no!” replied the woman, ‘I have seen a great many ups and downs—the story is too long | resumed Ormsby ; to tell you—but during those twenty years I have lived in at least fifty houses in this and other | interrupted the woman. neighbourhoods. ot Sia house. lady of the house when I first came here as a lodger, and that after so long a lapse of time she | should have come to lodge with me when I got to. be the-landlady of it!” “But now Jet us speak of poor Lucy Maitland; | and then we must converse on other and more serious subjects. As for the money which you owe your landlord, fear not—it shall be presently | forthcoming.” The woman expressed her gratitude for this ,; was nothing but the trutb.” “ And that was precisely what she did tell me,” * and when I called here ——” “T remember you, sir! I remember you well !” “I will give you a proof At last I got to be mistress of it! You called twice on two consecutive days— It was a strange coincidence—the | and on each oceasion I opened you the door !” very house where I first dwelt when I was se- | duced in the country and brought up to London! | nobleman. Mrs. Chicklade too, she saw many reverses; and it girl was singular also that she should have been land- “By heaven! is it possible P” exclaimed the “IT remember a slender, beautiful ”? But he stopped short, for he would not hurt the | feelings of even the depraved creature who sat opposite to him. But this depraved creature was moved by that reference to by-gone years when she young, fascinating, and beautiful ; and as two she said in a low voice, “ Yes—that person who opened you the door and whom you evidently remember—it was I!” “Well then, I will tell you why I called twice }on Lucy Maitland,” hastily continued Ormsby. “The first time was out of sheer curiosity to ascer- assurance; and she chuckled inwardly at the pro- | tain whether the tale which she had told on the grees that matters were taking, for she s»w that | with one thing and anotber she was tolerably cer- | tain of clearing a pretty penny for herself. “Yes,” said Ormsby, “Jet us speak of Lucy Maitiand:”’ and then he continued, in a sort of andible musing rather than because be was con- ecious that he was addressing himeelf to anybody, “Twenty years ago I was a wild fellow, I re- roember one night I was going to the gambling- bouze and | encountered the poor girl. She told me her tale: she had been seduced—she was in the way to become a mother—she had been brought up to London by her betrayer and abandoned by hls”? preceding evening was true: and the second time it was to take her an additional sum of money, for she assured me that if she could only get away from London she should be safe from peril and tempation. I eonfess that I did not place much reliance on the statement; for I had plunged too deep in dissipation to entertain a wholesome faith in the virtuous resolves of human nature. How- ever, | took ber the money; and thenceforth | saw her no wore, I became involved in a vortex of exciting incidents But enough! I am glad te have received from your lips the assurance that my sympathy was oot thrown away upon an Ul worthy object.” boo