The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 400: what you’re looking at

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

THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. yin ny yi eae 4 aa om , i a ? = is a = : tote - a aT og? te a . oe TT ‘Oe r —t cenit = —— = tt irlferes PoP ape. 393 —————EEee - - "of i 7. i, —_ ¥ 2 = ae = “ Well, sir,” resumed the black woman, “I taken off the passage lengthways, on the next roust tell you that those masons and bricklayers | storey—the one up above, I mean. It is lighted were all sent down from London to do the work; | by a window in the roof; and a very narrow stair- and the moment it was finished they went away, | case is the means of reaching it. The walls are so liberally rewarded. And no wonder !—for there is | thick, or else so well contrived by the masons who a secret connected with the house which I am now made the place, that no one in the adjoiniug going to explain. It is so contrived that there is'| chambers on the one side, or in the passage on the a room the existence of which no one suspects who other, could possibly overhear anything that took does not already know that secret—and it is place in that chamber. reached by a means of communication so cun-| has a double casement; and this likewise deadens The sky-light on the roof | ningly and craftily devised, that a person might all sound from within. The whole arrangement live a dozen years in the mansion without enter- | is as curious as it is clever: for there are devices taining the remotest idea of all these mysteries.” | to maintain a healthful supply of fresh air. In a “This sounds most strange!” said Christian. | word, the place must have cost Sir John Steward a “ How ig it possible that such ie can be taken | great deal of money.” up inside a house without the fact being sus-| “And now that you have finished the romance pected 7” of your story,” said Christian, who did not believe “The secret room,” continued the negress, “is | syllable of all that had just been told him very long but very narrow: it is a sort of slip | though he could not for the life of him conjecture No. 60.—FrovurRTH sERIES. tJ COUN (C DOO