The passage we extended ourselves after taking up our abode in this house.
We--we did not see why we should not profit by our ancestor's old and undiscovered wine-cellar to secure certain things which were valuable to us." Her hesitation in uttering this final sentence--a sentence all the more marked because naturally, she was a very straightforward person--awoke my doubt and caused me to ask myself what she meant by this word "secure." Did she mean, as circumstances went to show and as I had hitherto believed, that they had opened up this passage for the purpose of a private search in their old home for the lost valuables they believed to be concealed there?
Or had they, under some temporary suggestion of their disorganized brains, themselves hidden away among the rafters of this unexplored spot the treasure they believed lost and now constantly bewailed?
The doubt thus temporarily raised in my mind made me very uneasy for a moment, but I soon dismissed it and dropping this subject for the nonce, began to speak of the houses as they now looked and of the changes which had evidently been made in them since they had left the one and entered the other.
"I understand," I ventured at last, "that in those days this house also had a door opening on the alley-way.

Where did it lead--do you mind my asking ?--into a room or into a hallway?
I am so interested in old houses." They did not resent this overt act of curiosity; I had expected Miss Thankful to, but she didn't.

Some recollection connected with the name of Saunders had softened her heart toward me and made her regard with indulgence an interest which she might otherwise have looked upon as intrusive.
"We long ago boarded up that door," she answered.

"It was of very little use to us from our old library." "It looked into one of the rooms then ?" I persisted, but with a wary gentleness which I felt could not offend.
"No; there is no room there, only a passageway.

But it has closets in it, and we did not like to be seen going to them any time of day.