But it was needful that he should be a seemly _rapin_, orderly and quietly ambitious, like the house, otherwise he would not have been long suffered within its tranquil and self-respecting walls.
Fenwick climbed and climbed, discovered the little wooden staircase, and still climbed.

At the very top he found a long and narrow corridor, along which he groped in darkness.

Suddenly, at the end, a door opened, and a figure appeared on the threshold.
'Fenwick!--that you?
All right!--no steps! The floor was left _au naturel_ about 1680--but you won't come to grief.' Fenwick arrived at the open door, and Dick Watson drew him into the large studio beyond.

Fenwick looked round him in astonishment.

The room was a huge _grenier_ in the roof of the old house, roughly adapted to the purposes of a studio.