The Forsaken Inn

"I have but one room left," I said to this latecomer. "And one is all I want," he said. Then, with a quick glance at my face: "I suppose you are a little particular whom you put into the oak parlor. Not everyone appreciates such romantic surroundings." "You astonish me," he said with an expression of surprise and incredulity -- and walked on, very thoughtfully, straight to the room. At the door he paused. ""Don't you know the secret of the oak parlor?"" Anna Katharine Green (1846-1935), a prolific novelist and poet, earned a place in literary history with "The Leavenworth Case," the first detective novel by a woman.