Page:Frank Stockton - Rudder Grange.djvu/66

Rh in the neighbourhood. We entered the vestibule, the outer door being open, and beheld, on one side of us, a row of bellhandles. Above each of these handles was the mouth of a speaking-tube, and above each of these, a little glazed frame containing a visiting-card.

"Isn't this cute?" said Euphemia, reading over the cards. "Here's his name, and this is his bell and tube! Which would you do first, ring or blow?"

"My dear," said I, "you don't blow up those tubes. We must ring the bell, just as if it were an ordinary front-door bell, and instead of coming to the door, someone will call down the tube to us."

I rang the bell under the boarder's name, and very soon a voice at the tube said:

"Well?"

Then I told our names, and in an instant the front door opened.

"Why, their flat must be right here," whispered Euphemia. "How quickly the girl came!" And she looked for the girl as we entered. But there was no one there.

"Their flat is on the fifth storey," said I. "He mentioned that in his letter. We had better shut the door and go up."

Up and up the softly-carpeted stairs we climbed, and not a soul we saw or heard.

"It is like an enchanted cavern," said Euphemia. "You say the magic word, the door in the rock opens, and you go on, and on, through the vaulted passages—"

"Until you come to the ogre," said the boarder, who was standing at the top of the stairs. He did not behave at all like an ogre, for he was very glad to see us, and so was his wife. After we had settled