below a trap-door like this, which you will have to unbolt; that door
opens into the flooring of my lady's dressing-room, which is only
covered with a square Persian carpet that you can easily manage to
raise. You understand me?"

"Perfectly."

"Then take the light; Mr. Talboys will follow you. I give you twenty
minutes for your inspection of the paintings--that is, about a minute
apiece--and at the end of that time I shall expect to see you return."

Robert obeyed her implicitly, and George submissively following his
friend, found himself, in five minutes, standing amidst the elegant
disorder of Lady Audley's dressing-room.

She had left the house in a hurry on her unlooked-for journey to London,
and the whole of her glittering toilette apparatus lay about on the
marble dressing-table. The atmosphere of the room was almost oppressive
for the rich odors of perfumes in bottles whose gold stoppers had not
been replaced. A bunch of hot-house flowers was withering upon a tiny
writing-table. Two or three handsome dresses lay in a heap upon the
ground, and the open doors of a wardrobe revealed the treasures within.
Jewelry, ivory-backed hair-brushes, and exquisite china were scattered
here and there about the apartment. George Talboys saw his bearded face
and tall, gaunt figure reflected in the glass, and wondered to see how
out of place he seemed among all these womanly luxuries.

They went from the dressing-room to the boudoir, and through the boudoir
into the ante-chamber, in which there were, as Alicia had said, about
twenty valuable paintings, besides my lady's portrait.