Everything was there.
"This is miraculous!" exclaimed he. "I do not understand it."
"Your friend seems to be curious in these matters," said Mr. Eldredge
graciously. "Perhaps he is of some trade that makes this sort of
manufacture particularly interesting to him. You are quite at liberty,
my friend, to open the cabinet and inspect it as minutely as you wish.
It is an article that has a good deal to do with an obscure portion of
our family history. Look, here is the key, and the mode of opening the
outer door of the palace, as we may well call it." So saying, he threw
open the outer door, and disclosed within the mimic likeness of a stately
entrance hall, with a floor chequered of ebony and ivory. There were
other doors that seemed to open into apartments in the interior of the
palace; but when Mr. Eldredge threw them likewise wide, they proved to be
drawers and secret receptacles, where papers, jewels, money, anything
that it was desirable to store away secretly, might be kept.
"You said, sir," said Middleton, thoughtfully, "that your family history
contained matter of interest in reference to this cabinet. Might I
inquire what those legends are?"
"Why, yes," said Mr.
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