The Interloper by Violet Jacob

MR. BARCLAY held the happy position of chief bachelor in the polite / circles of Kaims. Although he had viewed with displeasure the advent of / a young and sporting banker and the pretensions of the doctor's eldest / son, who had an agreeable tenor voice, his position remained unshaken. / Very young ladies might transfer their interest to these upstarts and / their like, but, with the matrons who ruled society, he was still the / backbone of every assembly, and its first male ornament. He was an / authority on all local questions, and there clung about him that / subdued but conscious gallantry acceptable to certain female minds.

It was a cold night when he gave his overcoat and muffler to the maid / in the hall of a house which stood a little back from the High Street. / A buzz of talk came to him through an open door, and, as he ascended / the stairs, the last notes of a flute had just died away. The wife of / the coastguard inspector was giving a party, at which tea, / conversation, and music were the attractions. The expression which had / been arranging itself on his face culminated as he entered the / drawing-room.