an materials, and a low divan
ran down part way. Between the hangings were panels of sandal-wood,
ornamented with bits of mirror in the Burmese fashion, and half hidden
with curious foreign weapons, daggers, swords, and spears, and even a
Zulu assegai or two. On the floor stood a hookah, and on a small inlaid
table were a couple of curious little objects which I knew to be opium
pipes. In one corner, as though it had been pushed aside, stood an easel
with a canvas upon it, which was half covered with a piece of drapery.
The skylight was partly concealed with red silk blinds, drawn across the
staring glass, and from the centre of the dome was suspended a large
jewelled lamp. It was from this that all the light in the studio
proceeded at present, and though there was no fireplace, the room was
warm--indeed, insufferably hot. This fact, taken together with the
studio's proximity to the tower, made me feel more certain than before
that some flue in this modern portion of the house had caught fire. I
searched the panels for a bell, but found none, and at last lifted
several of the curtains that draped the larger part of the octagonal
walls. Under the first two that I raised only a blank space of dark wood
was visible, but under the third I was surprised to find a small,
secretive-looking door.

There was no knob or ring by way of handle, but close to the edge, and
about half-way between top and bottom, I distinguished a diminutive
keyhole, outlined with shining metal. I let the curtain drop again,
though lingeringly. It could be only a cupboard, or a particularly
secure wine cellar, perhaps, behind this dwarfish door, yet had I
discovered it in a house not English, but of a country less
conventionally civilised than our own, I should have told myself that I
had chanced upon the clue to a secret.

There was still a fourth curtained space (the remaining half of the
octagons being of the sandal-wood), and this, as it happened, was
directly behind the draped easel.

I moved towards it, not intending to pry into Mr. Wildred's domestic
economies, but still bent on unearthing an electric bell if I could do
so, when my eyes fell upon the partially-covered picture.

It was but a pinky-white, uncovered shoulder that I could see, with a
glimpse of red-gold hair at such a distance above as to suggest a
massive knot at the back of a woman's head, seen in profile. There was a
fraction of fluffy tulle sleeve as well, revealing the outl