The conversation turned at last to the legends belonging to a certain family; and one circumstance was mentioned so nearly resembling, in many particulars, the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, that the Lady Ellinor, scarcely doubting that some slight suspicion of her parents’ crimes had reached the ears of the Lady Anne, determined to change the subject at once.  She proposed to her fair friends that they should ramble together through the apartments of the castle; and she called for the old housekeeper, who had lived in the family from her childhood, to go along with them, and asked her to describe to them the person and manners of Queen Elizabeth, when she had visited at the castle, and slept in the state apartment; always since called, The Queen’s Bedchamber.

Led by their talkative guide, the careless, laughing party wandered from one chamber to another, listening to her anecdotes, and the descriptions she gave of persons and things in former days.  She had known many of the originals of the stately portraits in the picture gallery; and she could tell the names, and the exploits of those warriors in the family, whose coats of mail and glittering weapons adorned the armoury.  “And now,” said the Lady Ellinor, “what else is there to be seen?  Not that I mean to trouble you any longer with our questions, good Margaret, but give me this key, this key so seldom used,” pointing to a large, strangely shaped key, that hung among a bunch at the old housekeeper’s side.  “There!” she added, disengaging it herself from the ring, “I have taken it, and will return it very safely.  I assure you.  This key,” she said, turning to her young companions, “unlocks a gallery at the end of the eastern wing, which is always locked up, because the room is full of curious and rare treasures, that were brought by my father’s brother from many foreign lands.”

They enter.—­“This may be a charming place,” said one of the youngest and liveliest of the party, “but see, the rain has passed away, and the sun has at last burst out from the clouds.  How brightly he shines, even through these dull and dusty windows!” She gave but a passing glance to the treasures around her, and hastened to a half open door at the end of the gallery.  Some of her companions followed her to a broad landing place, at the top of a flight of marble stairs.  They were absent but a few minutes, and they returned with smiles of delight, and glad, eager voices, declaring that they had unbolted a door at the bottom of the staircase, and found themselves in the most beautiful part of the gardens.  “Come!” said the young and sprightly girl, “do not loiter here; leave these rare and beautiful things until it rains again, and come forth at once with me into the sweet, fresh air.”

The Lady Ellinor and her friend the Lady Anne were sitting side by side, at the same table, and looking over the same volume—­a folio of Norman chronicles, embellished with many quaint and coloured pictures.  They both lifted up their faces from the book, as their merry companions again addressed them.  “Nay, do not look up, but rise up!” said the laughing maiden, and drawing away the volume from before them, she shut it up instantly, and laid it on another table; throwing down a branch of jessamine in its place.