bt themselves and try to do right may hope for
warning. Such will not, I think, be allowed to go far out of the way
for want of that. Self-confidence is the worst traitor."

"You comfort me a little."

"And then you must remember," continued Donal, "that nothing in its
immediate root is evil; that from best human roots worst things spring.
No one, for instance, will be so full of indignation, of fierceness, of
revenge, as the selfish man born with a strong sense of justice.--But
you say this is not the room in which you hear the music best?"

"No, it is here."

CHAPTER LV.

HER BED-CHAMBER.

Lady Arctura opened the door of her bedroom. Donal glanced round it. It
was as old-fashioned as the other.

"What is behind that press there--wardrobe, I think you call it?" he
asked.

"Only a recess," answered lady Arctura. "The press, I am sorry to say,
is too high to get into it."

Possibly had the press stood in the recess, the latter would have
suggested nothing; but having caught sight of the opening behind the
press, Donal was attracted by it. It was in the same wall with the
fireplace, but did not seem formed by the projection of the chimney,
for it did not go to the ceiling.

"Would you mind if I moved the wardrobe a little on one side?" he asked.

"Do what you like," she answered.

Donal moved it, and found the recess rather deep for its size. The
walls of the room were wainscotted to the height of four feet or so,
but the recess was bare. There were signs of hinges on one, and of a
bolt on the other of the front edges: it had seemingly been once a
closet, whose door continued the wainscot. There were no signs of
shelves in it; the plaster was smooth.

But Donal was not satisfied. He took a big knife from his pocket, and
began tapping all round. The moment he came to the right-hand side,
there was a change in the sound.

"You don't mind if I make a little dust, my lady?" he said.

"Do anything you please," answered Arctura.

He sought in several places to drive the point of his knife into the
plaster; it would nowhere enter it more than a quarter of an inch: here
was no built wall, he believed, but one smooth stone. He found nothing
like a joint till he came near the edge of the recess: there was a
limit of the stone, and he began at once to clear it. It gave him a
straight line from the bottom to the top of the recess, where it met
another at right angles.

"There does seem, my lady," he said,