The story
“Mrs. Gray, with oodles of money to spend and a limitless ambition, decides, as the de facto head of the Gray family, to marry her daughter, May, to a British nobleman, whose titles take up three lines in ‘Burke’s Peerage’ but who exists on a decidedly small remittance. May is much peeved at her mother’s choice of a husband, and when Jack DeCourceville arrives at the village station a sleigh-riding party is made up to meet him. Jack gets all that is in store for him and a little bit more. He finds himself among choice spirits who delight in ‘spoofing’ him. He is much surprised to learn that in American slang ‘breaking the ice’ means being rolled in the snow. He is shown all the delights of an old-fashioned American winter by his spirited hostess and her friends. In fact he is given such a cool reception, so to speak, that he decides to take the next train back to Broadway where they have tea sharp at four o’clock and muffins to go with it.”
Summary from Reel Life · 18 April 1914
