"Yes; is there any door, leading through some of the other rooms, by
which we can contrive to get into hers?"

His cousin shook her head, and conducted them into a corridor where
there were some family portraits. She showed them a tapestried chamber,
the large figures upon the faded canvas looking threatening in the dusky
light.

"That fellow with the battle-ax looks as if he wanted to split George's
head open," said Mr. Audley, pointing to a fierce warrior, whose
uplifted arm appeared above George Talboys' dark hair.

"Come out of this room, Alicia," added the young man, nervously; "I
believe it's damp, or else haunted. Indeed, I believe all ghosts to be
the result of damp or dyspepsia. You sleep in a damp bed--you awake
suddenly in the dead of the night with a cold shiver, and see an old
lady in the court costume of George the First's time, sitting at the
foot of the bed. The old lady's indigestion, and the cold shiver is a
damp sheet."

There were lighted candles in the drawing-room. No new-fangled lamps had
ever made their appearance at Audley Court. Sir Michael's rooms were
lighted by honest, thick, yellow-looking wax candles, in massive silver
candlesticks, and in sconces against the walls.

There was very little to see in the drawing-room; and George Talboys
soon grew tired of staring at the handsome modern furniture, and at a
few pictures of some of the Academicians.

"Isn't there a secret passage, or an old oak chest, or something of that