Read "Max Carrados Mysteries" by Ernest Bramah online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The mysterious affair of the anatomical subject, that ended in a Great Western corridor express, really began in a New York Mansion when Mr Hiram S. Nogg, wearing noiseless slippers, inconsiderately wandered into the remotest of his five palatial drawing-rooms, to the embarrassment of his niece Sabina and the even more pronounced dismay of Rigby Lacksome. In the terms of Mr Lacksome's unspoken comment, the premature discovery of the idyll 'knocked a piece of varnish off the mudguard, ' and he rapidly speculated that unless something drastic and convincing could be brought into the situation not only his excellent chance of winning Miss Craddock's hand, together with a reasonable settlement, but even his tenure of usefulness as Mr Nogg's third secretary stood in jeopardy. But having been modelling himself on the strong silent pattern for some time past, nothing really useful occurred to him.
'Well, Pop,' remarked the maiden, after she had nicked her hair into position (long residence in the Nogg household had led to the adoption of this unpleasant form of endearment at her lips), 'what you gotta say about it?'