The passage ended in a large, brown door, and the door had a seal of red wax the size of a five-shilling piece over the key-hole. This seal gave me the impression of having been there for a long time, for it was dusty and discoloured. I was still staring at it, and wondering what that door might conceal, when I heard a voice calling behind me, and, running back, found my young man sitting up in his chair and very much astonished at finding himself in darkness. "Why on earth did you take the lamp away?" he asked. "I was looking for assistance." "You might look for some time," said he. "I am alone in the house." "Awkward if you get an illness." "It was foolish of me to faint. I inherit a weak heart from my mother, and pain or emotion has that effect upon me. It will carry me off some day, as it did her. You're not a doctor, are you?" "No, a lawyer. Frank Alder is my name." "Mine is Felix Stanniford. Funny that I should meet a lawyer, for my friend, Mr. Perceval, was saying that we should need one soon." "Very happy, I am sure." "Well, that will depend upon him, you know. Did you say that you had run with that lamp all over the ground floor?" "Yes." "_All_ over it?" he asked, with emphasis, and he looked at me very hard. "I think so. I kept on hoping that I should find some one." "Did you enter _all_ the rooms?" he asked, with the same intent gaze. "Well, all that I could enter." "Oh, then you _did_ notice it!" said he, and he shrugged his shoulders with the air of a man who makes the best of a bad job. "Notice, what?" "Why, the door with the seal on it." "Yes, I did." "Weren't you curious to know what was in it?" "Well, it did strike me as unusual." "Do you think you could go on living alone in this house, year after year, just longing all the time to know what is at the other side of that door, and yet not looking?" "Do you mean to say," I cried, "that you don't know yourself?" "No more than you do." "Then why don't you look?" "I mustn't," said he. He spoke in a constrained way, and I saw that I had blundered on to some delicate ground. I don't know that I am more inquisitive than my neighbours, but there certainly was something in the situation which appealed very strongly to my curiosity. However, my last excuse for remaining in the house was gone now that my companion had recovered his senses. I rose to go. "Are you in a hurry?" he asked. "No; I have nothing to do." "Well, I should be very glad if you would stay with me a little. The fact is that I live a very retired and secluded life here. I don't suppose there is a man in London who leads such a life as I do. It is quite unusual for me to have any one to talk with."