Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II DINNERS, as a prescribed method of entertainment, are habitual to Fitzhugh Square; but invariably formal, they are seldom, if ever, what one might call animated. The dinner to-night, though, appeared to be the exception. It was so much so, in fact, that a somewhat unusual expression applied to it by one of the guests, the Mrs. Steese just announced, seems in some respects justified. Cozy was the term she used. Safe to say, few other dinners in the vast, imposing dining-room ever had earned the description; however, it was not only in this cosiness, such as it was, that the evening was out of the ordinary. The Square's other residents, had any happened to be present, would probably have considered many of the details unwonted. One, in point, was the manner in which the host had been at pains to give it. For a year the house had, to all intents, stood vacant, its only occupant a caretaker in the basement.It was, in fact, this woman who had helped the ladies with their wraps. That same afternoon, though, dusk had just begun to fall when the silent, shuttered dwelling so long untenanted began to bustle with activity, the first sign of this the arrival of a taxi- cab laden to the roof with luggage. Rounding the corner it drew up at the curb in front, when its fare alighted and hurried to the basement door. Here the man—it was Mawsby, Lester's valet—laid hold of the antiquated bellpull and gave it a series of energetic jerks. Instantly, the house resounded with the bell's echoes, a clanging audible even in the street; but as if unsatisfied with this, the valet also thumped and pounded on the door. Presently, in answer, the caretaker appeared and the very instant she laid eyes on the manservant she gaped, her astonishment evident. Maw|by abruptly cut short her e...