MobileRead Forums - Short Fiction Tarkington, Booth: Beasley's Christmas Party (Illustrated) v1. 19 December 2012

BEASLEY’S CHRISTMAS PARTY
by Booth Tarkington (1869 – 1946)
Illustrated by Ruth Sypherd Clements (no biographical data found)
First published 1909

From the author of The Magnificent Ambersons (winner of the 1919 Pulitzer Prize), Alice Adams (winner of the 1922 Pulitzer Prize), the Penrod books, and many others.

A newspaper reporter, new in town, notices that the behavior of his next-door neighbor, gubernatorial candidate David Beasley, is decidedly odd. Investigation leads to surprising discoveries. This little tale is gently flavored with a soupçon of mystery and a dash of romance, lightly dusted with sentimentality, and garnished with a sprig of Christmas spirit.

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An excerpt:

Quote:

A light shone in the hallway behind the broad front doors; one of these was opened, and revealed in silhouette the tall, thin figure of a man in a long, old-fashioned dressing-gown.

“Simpledoria,” he said, addressing the night air with considerable severity, “I don’t know what to make of you. You might have caught your death of cold, roving out at such an hour. But there,” he continued, more indulgently; “wipe your feet on the mat and come in. You’re safe now!”

He closed the door, and I heard him call to someone up-stairs, as he rearranged the fastenings:

“Simpledoria is all right—only a little chilled. I’ll bring him up to your fire.”

I went on my way in a condition of astonishment that engendered, almost, a doubt of my eyes; for if my sight was unimpaired and myself not subject to optical or mental delusion, neither boy nor dog nor bird nor cat, nor any other object of this visible world, had entered that opened door. Was my “finest” house, then, a place of call for wandering ghosts, who came home to roost at four in the morning?

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22 half-page color illustrations and frontispiece (uncaptioned). Formatted italics, curly quotes, emdashes.
Although unnecessary for a 16,000-word novelette, there is a cross-linked inline ToC. Drop-caps and Large-caps versions.

This is a very minor work, but may be just the thing when you need a short break from the holiday hoopla.