The Siege of the Seven Suitors

An October dinner near Gramercy Park turns awkward when a chimney doctor mentions the Asolando Tea-Room to his friend Hartley Wiggins. The normally composed lawyer drops his spoon, and the narrator, Ames, begins probing a subject that plainly troubles him. Meredith Nicholson builds this courtship novel through friendly sparring, club gossip and the peculiar customs of a tea-room whose attendants treat their work as a fashionable cause.

At Hopefield Manor, Ames has chimney troubles to investigate alongside puzzling happenings that make him suspect someone is playing a ghost. Cecilia Hollister reminds him of his duties as her Aunt Octavia's guest, while Octavia's quick thinking complicates his search for the house plans. The arrival of three stern suitors at his office adds another interruption. Readers interested in comic romance can follow a talkative observer through a world of social rituals, competitive wooing and practical work repeatedly overtaken by curiosity.