Saturday afternoon in June,
1900, about 3 p.m
MRS. WARREN 'S DAUGHTER The date when this story begins is a Saturday afternoon in June , 1900 , about 3 p.m. . The scene is the western room of a suite of offices on the fifth floor of a house in Chancery Lane , the offices of _ Fraser and Warren _ , Consultant Actuaries and Accountants . There is a long window facing west , the central part of which is open , affording a passage out on to a parapet . Through this window , and still better from the parapet outside , may be seen the picturesque spires and turrets of the Law Courts , a glimpse here and there of the mellow , red-brick , white-windowed houses of New Square , the tree-tops of Lincoln 's Inn Fields , and the hint beyond a steepled and chimneyed horizon of the wooded heights of Highgate .