of her proposed hall, so long as the obstacle remained, for a
time my wife was for a modified project. But I could never
exactly comprehend it. As far as I could see through it, it
seemed to involve the general idea of a sort of irregular
archway, or elbowed tunnel, which was to penetrate the chimney at
some convenient point under the staircase, and carefully avoiding
dangerous contact with the fireplaces, and particularly steering
clear of the great interior flue, was to conduct the enterprising
traveler from the front door all the way into the dining-room in
the remote rear of the mansion. Doubtless it was a bold stroke of
genius, that plan of hers, and so was Nero's when he schemed his
grand canal through the Isthmus of Corinth. Nor will I take oath,
that, had her project been accomplished, then, by help of lights
hung at judicious intervals through the tunnel, some Belzoni or
other might have succeeded in future ages in penetrating through
the masonry, and actually emerging into the dining-room, and once
there, it would have been inhospitable treatment of such a
traveler to have denied him a recruiting meal.

But my bustling wife did not restrict her objections, nor in the
end confine her proposed alterations to the first floor. Her
ambition was of the mounting order. She ascended with her schemes
to the second floor, and so to the attic. Perhaps there was some
small ground for her discontent with things as they were. The
truth is, there was no regular passage-way up-stairs or down,
unless we again except that little orchestra-gallery before
mentioned. And all this was owing to the chimney, which my
gamesome spouse seemed despitefully to regard as the bully of the
house. On all its four sides, nearly all the chambers sidled up
to the chimney for the benefit of a fireplace. The chimney would