Fletcher J. S. Fletcher 
Copper Box [EPUB ebook] 

A lonely countryside under heavy white drifts of snow, and a even lonelier young artist lost in it – then suddenly, blacker than the night, a queer turreted old house appears before his eyes, a door opens and the prettiest girl the artist has ever seen asks him to come in for the night… This is merely the fist chapter of the COPPER BOX with Parnlewe, the brilliantly sardonic guardian of the girl, and the copper box of the title, and all the adventure still to come. J.S. Fletcher writes a mystery story with the light hand of humour. His characters are most blissfully good-humoured in the face of intrigue, danger and rather overwhelming odds.