A row of brass plates confronted him, but the name of Commodore Graham was engraved on none of them.

Hillyard rang the housekeeper's bell and inquired.
"On the top floor on the left," he was told.
He climbed many little flights of stairs, and at the top of each his heart sank a little lower.

When the stairs ended he confronted a mean, brown-varnished door; and he almost turned and fled.

After all, the monstrous thing looked possible.

He stood upon the threshold of a set of chambers.