"I'll be shot if you do!" cried their host springing towards, and locking it. "That's right!" cried several; "keep them in! That's not fair to leave so soon." "Done, my boy!" exclaimed Vellumy, rushing to another--a side one. "Come along, Tremenhere; we can find our way through this passage." "Try, try!" shouted Lord Randolph after them; "the doors are locked that way, you must come back." "This way, Tremenhere," called Vellumy, running on before; "up this side passage, and the private stair, to G_w_ay's own rooms; I know the way, come along!" They had both been drinking rather freely, and in the cup Tremenhere had forgotten all annoyance. CHAPTER III. Up the narrow stair they hurried laughing, then down a passage, at the further end of which was a door. "G_w_ay forgot this," laughed the conductor; "this leads to the g_w_allery." Apparently Gray had not forgotten it; for, for some unexplained purpose, it was fastened. "Confound it!" exclaimed the speaker; "what can he have locked up all these doors for? Try that one on your left; that leads to his own apa_w_tments." "Locked, too," said Tremenhere, after trying it. "I won't be b_w_eaten!" cried Vellumy; "st_w_op a moment. I'll run down the p_w_assage, and g_w_et the keys out of the other doors; they'll most likely op_w_en this;" and back he ran. Tremenhere stood looking after him. "Here," he called out, though under his breath, from the end of the passage; "here's a key--t_w_y it;" and he flung it down the carpeted corridor. "I'll go look for m_w_ore." Tremenhere raised the key and applied it to the lock, which yielded at once; he entered unhesitatingly, with that freedom natural to a bachelor-house, and found himself in a small antechamber leading to Lord Randolph's own rooms; for an instant he stood irresolute. Which way turn? the picture-gallery was the object of his search. There were two doors in this room--one opposite the one by which he had entered; towards this he moved, and, gently turning the handle, found himself at the entrance of a small, but elegantly-furnished sitting-room. There were no lights, except from the fire, which threw a wide, cheerful blaze over all. A sofa was drawn close to it, and on this sat a lady, leaning half over the arm of it; her back was turned to the door, which had opened noiselessly. The light was not uncertain, and it threw its fullest blaze on that fair form--and that fair form was Minnie's! Tremenhere stood still--a statue-like stillness. Life seemed fading away in horror. He felt drunk for a moment with suffering; then vision, thought--all cleared away into perfect sobriety, and he strode silently towards her. She started, and, dropping her book, uttered a cry of surprise, and, by an involuntary feeling of sudden alarm, shrunk back; then, seeing who it was, exclaimed in joy, if he could so have read it,-- "Oh, Miles, is that you? but you startled me, indeed, standing like a ghost, there. You look as if you did not expect me!"