happened? I was in Lady Studley's room. Shutting the mysterious door of
the wardrobe very carefully, I found that all trace of its existence
immediately vanished.

There was no furniture against this part of the wall. It looked
absolutely bare and smooth. No picture ornamented it. The light paper
which covered it gave the appearance of a perfectly unbroken pattern. Of
course, there must be a concealed spring somewhere, and I lost no time
in feeling for it. I pressed my hand and the tips of my fingers in every
direction along the wall. Try as I would, however, I could not find the
spring, and I had at last to leave Lady Studley's room and go back to
the one occupied by her husband, by the ordinary door.

Once more I re-entered the wardrobe and deliberately broke off the
button which opened the secret door from within. Anyone who now entered
the wardrobe by this door, and shut it behind him, would find it
impossible to retreat. The apparition, if it had material foundation,
would thus find itself trapped in its own net.

What could this thing portend?

I had already convinced myself that if Sir Henry were the subject of a
hallucination, I also shared it. As this was impossible, I felt certain
that the apparition had a material foundation. Who was the person who
glided night after night into Lady Studley's room, who knew the trick of
the secret spring in the wall, who entered the old wardrobe, and
performed this ghastly, this appalling trick on Sir Henry Studley? I
resolved that I would say nothing to Sir Henry of my fresh discovery
until after I had spent another night in the haunted room.