of the keys, that the Myrtle Room was not on
the ground floor, but was one of the sixteen
rooms situated on the first and second stories.
Beyond this, the writer of the report had
nothing further to mention, except that he
had ventured to decide on waiting at Porthgenna,
in the event of his master having any
further instructions to communicate.

What was to be done next? That was
necessarily the first question suggested by
the servant's announcement of the
unsuccessful result of his inquiries at Porthgenna.
How it was to be answered, was not very
easy to discover. Mrs. Frankland had
nothing to suggest, Mr. Frankland had
nothing to suggest, the doctor had nothing
to suggest. The more industriously they all
three hunted through their minds for a new
idea, the less chance there seemed to be of
their succeeding in finding one. At last,
Rosamond proposed, in despair, that they
should seek the advice of some fourth person
who could be depended on; and asked her
husband's permission to write a confidential
statement of their difficulties to the Vicar of
Long Beckley. Doctor Chennery was their
oldest friend and adviser; he had known
them both as children; he was well
acquainted with the history of their families;
he felt a fatherly interest in their
fortunes; and he possessed that invaluable
quality of plain clear-headed common sense,
which marked him out as the very man who
would be most likely, as well as most willing,
to help them.

Mr. Frankland readily agreed to his
wife's suggestion; and Rosamond wrote
immediately to Doctor Chennery, informing
him of everything that had happened since
Mrs. Jazeph's first introduction to her, and
asking him for his opinion on the course of
proceeding which it would be best for her
husband and herself to adopt, in the difficulty
in which they were now placed. By return
of post an answer was received, which amply
justified Rosamond's reliance on her old
friend. Doctor Chennery not only sympathised
heartily with the eager curiosity which
Mrs. Jazeph's language and conduct had
excited in the mind of his correspondent,
but he had also a plan of his own to propose
for ascertaining the position of the Myrtle
Room.

The vicar prefaced his suggestion by
expressing a strong opinion against instituting
any further search after Mrs. Jazeph. Judging
by the circumstances, as they were related
to him, he considered that it would be the
merest waste of time to attempt to find her
out. Accordingly, he passed from that part
of the subject at once, and devoted himself
to the consideration of the more important
question, How Mr. and Mrs. Frankland were
to proceed in the endeavour to discover
for themselves the mystery of the Myrtle
Room?

On this point, Doctor Chennery entertained
a conviction of the strongest kind; and he
warned Rosamond, beforehand, that she must
expect to be very much surprised when he
came to the statement of it. Taking it for
granted that she and her husband could not
hope to find out where the room was, unless
they were assisted by some one better
acquainted than themselves with the old local
arrangements of the interior of Porthgenna
Tower, the vicar declared it to be his opinion
that there was only one individual living
who could afford them the information they
wanted, and that this person was no other
than Rosamond's own cross-grained relative,
Andrew Treverton.

This startling opinion Doctor Chennery
supported by two reasons. In the first place,
Andrew was the only surviving member of
the elder generation who had lived at
Porthgenna Tower, in the bygone days when all
traditions connected with the north rooms
were still fresh in the memories of the
inhabitants of the house. The people who lived
in it now were strangers who had been placed
in their situations by Mr. Frankland's father,
and the servants employed in former days by
Captain Treverton were dead or dispersed.
The one available person, therefore, whose
recollections were likely to be of any service
to Mr. and Mrs. Frankland, was indisputably
the brother of the old owner of Porthgenna
Tower.

In the second place, there was the chance,
even if Andrew Treverton's memory was not
to be trusted, that he might possess written
or printed information relating to the locality
of the Myrtle Room. By his father's will—
which had been made when Andrew was a
young man just going to college, and which
had not been altered at the period of his
departure from England, or at any after
time—he had inherited the choice old collection
of books in the library at Porthgenna.
Supposing that he still preserved these
heirlooms, it was highly probable that there
might exist among them some plan, or some
description of the house as it was in the
olden time, which would supply all the
information that was wanted. Here, then, was
another valid reason for believing that if a
clue to the position of the Myrtle Room
existed anywhere, Andrew Treverton was
the man to lay his hand on it.

Assuming it, therefore, to be proved that
the surly old misanthrope was the only
person who could be profitably applied to for
the requisite information, the next question
was, How to communicate with him? The
vicar understood perfectly that after
Andrew's inexcusably heartless conduct towards
her father and mother, it was quite impossible
for Rosamond to address any direct
application to him. That obstacle, however,
might be surmounted by making the necessary
communication proceed from Doctor
Chennery. Heartily as the vicar disliked
Andrew Treverton personally, and strongly