It was the
first time they met after his rude behaviour on her proposal to
search for the lost room.
"What were you doing this morning, uncle?" she said. "There was such
a thumping and banging somewhere in the castle! Davie said you were
determined, he thought, to find the lost room."
"Nothing of the kind, my love," answered the earl. "--I do hope they
will not spoil the stair carrying the stones and mortar down!"
"What was it then, uncle?"
"Simply this, my dear: my late wife, your aunt, and I, had a plan
for taking that closet behind my room on the stair into the room
itself. In preparation, I had a wall built across the middle of the
closet, so as to divide it and make two recesses of it, and act also
as a buttress to the weakened wall. Then your aunt died, and I
hadn't the heart to open the recesses or do anything more in the
matter. So one half of the closet was cut off, and remained
inaccessible. But there had been left in it an old bureau,
containing papers of some consequence, for it was heavy, and
intended to occupy the same position after the arches were opened.
Now, as it happens, I want one of those papers, so the wall has had
to come down again."
"But, uncle, what a pity!" said Arctura. "Why did you not open the
arches? The recesses would have been so pretty in that room!"
"I am sorry I did not think of asking you what you would like done
about it, my child! The fact is I never thought of your taking any
interest in the matter; I had naturally lost all mine.
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