And perhaps, though not downright manly truthfulness, this was as much as you could expect from a girl.
There were holes in the little tower of the staircase to let light in.
At the top of it was a thick door with iron bolts.

We shot these back, and it was not fear but caution that made Oswald push open the door so very slowly and carefully.
Because, of course, a stray dog or cat might have got shut up there by accident, and it would have startled Alice very much if it had jumped out on us.
When the door was opened we saw that there was no such thing.

It was a room with eight sides.

Denny says it is the shape called octogenarian; because a man named Octagius invented it.

There were eight large arched windows with no glass, only stone-work, like in churches.