ost
upside down in her efforts to scan the passage. "I wonder if they ever
felt giddy."

"There's a balustrade, of course, but I prefer our modern gym. I believe
there's a walk all over the roof too. Athelstane went up once. He said
it was like being on the top of a mountain, and you could look all over
the town."

"What's that queer stone box thing on the wall?" asked Verity, still
gazing upwards.

Ingred followed the line of her friend's eye to a point above the
pillars but below the Nuns' Ambulatory. Here, built out like an oriel
window, was a curious closed-in-gallery of stone, pierced in places by
tiny frets. It seemed to have nothing to do with the architecture of the
Abbey, and indeed to be a sort of excrescence which had been added to it
at some later date. It spoilt the beauty of line, and would have been
better removed.

"Oh, that's the peep-hole!" said Ingred, lowering her head, for it was
painful to stretch her neck in so uncomfortable a position. "It was put
up in the seventeenth century, when the whole place was full of those
old-fashioned high pews. People were very dishonest in those days, and
thieves used to come to church on purpose to pick pockets. So they
always used to keep somebody stationed up there, looking down through
the holes over the congregation to see that no purses were taken during
the service. Nice state of things, wasn't it?"

"Rather! But I'd love to go up there. I say, the verger's still at his
tea. Shall we try?"

"Right-o! I'm game if you are!"

By the north porch there was a small oak door studded with nails.
Generally this was kept locked, but to-day, by a miracle of good
fortune, it happened to be open. It was, of course, a very unorthodox
thing for the verger to go away and leave the Abbey unattended, even for
half an hour, but vergers, after all, are only human, and enjoy a cup of
tea as much as other people who do not wear black cassocks. He was
safely seated by the fireside in his ivy-colored cottage at the other
side of the churchyard, so the girls seized their golden opportunity.
They went up and up and up, along a winding staircase for an
interminable way. It was dark, and the steps were worn with the tread of
seven centuries, and here and there was a broken bit over which they had
to clamber with care. At last, after what seemed like mounting the Tower
of Babel, they stumbled up through a narrow doorway into the most
extraordinary place in the world. They were