Just Joshin - What the Dickens?

There was a 1924 edition of Gertrude Chandler Warner's The Box-Car Children I had my eye on for this year's Christmas present to myself. The hotel room door swung abruptly open. An unsmiling, dark-haired man stood framed against an elegant .... I read for some time before I finally raised my head. I no longer saw the hotel room. I don't think I even saw the book or the handwritten pages anymore. I was seeing benevolent old Doctor Dimpledolly and his amiable missus as they ...