The door to the pub opens, and the person in the ragged formalwear walks in, and sits down at their usual place at one end of the bar. They quietly order a glass of red wine from the bartender, and pull out a hardback book from their battered leather satchel. It's quite thick, and seems to be from one of those collections that's normally sold more to decorate bookshelves than to actually be read. The cover is frayed and water-stained, as if the book had spent quite a lot of time in a room that was open to the elements, like a ruined solarium or conservatory.
As the ragged person opens the book to their marked place about a third of the way through, you can see that the cover has stamped on it "The Mysteries of Udolpho / Ann Radcliffe".