He had had a reply, sufficiently cordial, to his telegram, arranging
for him to go directly to the Groves' house; but that he had declined;
and when he gave the driver of a taxi-cab the address on East Sixty-
sixth Street it was past four and the appropriate hour for afternoon
tea.
The house, non-committal on the outside--except for the perceived
elaboration of the window draperies within--was, Lee saw at once, a
rich undisturbed accumulation of the decorative traditions of the
eighteen-eighties. The hall was dark, with a ceiling and elaborate
panels of black walnut and a high dull silver paper. The reception room
into which he was shown, by a maid, was jungle-like in its hangings and
deep-tufted upholstery of maroon and royal blue velvets, its lace and
twisted cords with heavy tassels, and hassocks crowded on the sombrely
brilliant rugs sacred in mosques. There was a mantle in colored
marbles, cabinets of fretted ebony, tables of onyx and floriated
ormolu, ivories and ornaments of Benares brass and olivewood.
In the close incongruity of this preserved Victorianism Mrs. William
Loyd Grove, when she appeared soon after, startled Lee Randon by her
complete expression of a severely modern air. She was dressed for the
street in a very light brown suit, rigidly simple, with a small black
three-cornered hat, a sable skin about her neck, and highly polished
English brogues with gaiters.
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