Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Tatterley, the Story of a Dead Man
Caleb Fry always walked home; he had walked home for more years than he cared to count, and he was scarcely the man to change any habit now. Punctually at half-past six o'clock he locked up the small room which served him as an office; punctually at a few minutes after seven o'clock he let himself into the house in one of the dull streets in the neighbourhood of Bloomsbury, and climbed doggedly to the topmost floor - and was at home. Punctually, too, at a quarter past seven, his dinner was brought up from the basement by his landlady, and set out on a small round table near the fire. It was characteristic of the man, and his mode of life, that his landlady had scarcely ever seen him, during all the years that he had lived there. For she simply prepared his meals, and those of his servant, and handed them to the servant at the appointed times. The simple domestic arrange ments were all made through this servant, who, in money matters, acted as the go-between for his master. Probably Caleb Fry liked to keep up this air of mystery; it gave him a certain importance caused him to be spoken of in whispers. There may have been a more simple reason - the desire that was always upon him that men should fear him - that he should hold a power over them of which they did not know the full extent. Be that as it may, he was a lonely man from choice - a man who spoke only to his servant, outside the City, and only then in the briefest and most necessary sentences - a man whose few communi cations to his few relations, were made through this servant. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
