It was a raw, ill-humored afternoon, yet too late in the spring for the ministration of steam heat, so the unseasonable May chill was banished from Mrs. De Peyster’s sitting-room by a wood fire that crackled in the grate; crackled most decorously, be it added, for Mrs. De Peyster’s fire would no more have forgotten itself and shown a boisterous enthusiasm than would one of her admirably trained servants.