_Happy Thought._--To call it "Games for Hermits." Milburd exclaims, "Stunning place for fireworks. We might do the storming of the Fortress there." _Happy Thought._--"Good place," say, "for a retired study." Cazell says, "I tell you what we ought to do with that; make it into spare rooms. A castle for single gentlemen. They could cross in a boat at night." Chilvern is of opinion it ought to be restored, and made a gem of architectural design. Boodels says, if anything, he should like it to be an observatory, or, on second thoughts, a large aquarium. Cazell says at once, "If you want to see an aquarium you should go to Havre." Chilvern returns that there's a better one at Boulogne. Milburd caps this by quoting the one at the Crystal Palace. Cazell observes quickly that _the_ place for curious marine specimens is Bakstorf in Central Russia. "_You've_ never been to Central Russia," says Milburd, superciliously. Professing to have travelled considerably himself, he doesn't like the idea of anyone having done the same. "I wish," exclaims Cazell, using a formula of his own, "I wish I had as many sovereigns as I've been in Central Russia." This appears conclusive, and, if it isn't, here we are at the House. Blackmeer Hall. Elizabethan, apparently. [Illustration: AN OLD WOMAN RECEIVES US AT THE DOOR.] CHAPTER III. WITHIN--THE HOUSEKEEPER--WINDOWS--INFORMATION--THE ORIEL--VIEW-- FLOOR--MILBURD'S INQUIRY--TYPICAL DEVELOPMENT--MATERIAL--AN EXAMPLE --CRONE--POOR--MEDITATIONS--THE FRESCO--TAPESTRY--ARMOUR--MICE--RATS --THE GHOST. An old woman curtseys, and ushers our party into the Hall itself, which is lofty and spacious, but in a mildewy condition. The floor is partly stone partly tiles, as if the original designer had been, in his day, uncertain whether to make a roof of it, or not. A fine old chimney, with a hearth for logs, and dogs, is at one end, and reminds me of retainers, deer hounds, oxen roasted whole, and Christmas revels in the olden time. The windows are diamond-paned. To open in compartments. The old woman tells us that this was rebuilt in fifteen hundred and fifty-two, and then she shows us into the drawing-room. This is a fine apartment with an Oriel window, giving on to a lawn of rank and tangled grass. Beyond this chaos of green, is a well timbered covert, dense as a small black forest. The distance between the trees becoming greater to the left of the plantation, we obtain a glimpse of the lake which we passed on our road. There is another grand fire-place in this room. The wainscot wants patching up, and so does the parqueted floor. The old woman tells us that "they say as Queen Elizabeth was once here." Milburd asks seriously, "Do you recollect her, ma'am?" The crone wags her head and replies "that it was afore her time."