The Oakdale Affair

The house on the hill showed lights only upon the first floor-in the spacious reception hall, the dining room, and those more or less mysterious purlieus thereof from which emanate disagreeable odors and agreeable foods. From behind a low bush across the wide lawn a pair of eyes transferred to an alert brain these simple perceptions from which the brain deduced with Sherlockian accuracy and Raffleian purpose that the family of the president of The First National Bank of-Oh, lets call it Oakdale-was at dinner, that the servants were below stairs and the second floor deserted.