The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1915-07-16
HAPTE IT,.

James BrCod's home was a remark
able one. That portion of the house
which rightly may be described as
public in order to distinguish 1t
from other parts where privacy was
enforced, was not unlike any OF the
richly furnished, old fashioned places
in the lower part Of the city, where
there are still traces left of the knick-
erbockers and their times. This was
not the home of men who had been
merely rich; 1t was not wealth alone
that stood behind these stately invest
ments.
AT the top of the house were the
rooms which no n entered except by
the gracious will of the master. Here
James Brood had stored the quaint.
priceless treasures Of his own peculiar.
fancy-exquisite. curious things from
the mystic East, things that are not
to be bought and sold but come only
to the hand OF him who searches in
lands where peril is the price.
Worlds separated the upper and
lower regions of that fine old house;
a single step took one from the sedate
Occident into the very heart of the
Orient; a narrow threshold was the
line between the rugged West and the
soft, languorous, seductive East. In
this part of the house, James Brood.
when at home for one of his brief
stays, spent many Of his hours in Sc
clusion, shut off from the rest of the
establishment as completely as If he
were the inhabitant of another world.
Attended by his Hindu servant, a
silent man named Ranjab, and on oc-
casions by his secretary, he saw but
little of the remaining members OF
his rather extensive household. For
several years he had been engaged in
the task Of writing his memoirs-so
called-in so far as they related to his
| experiences and researches of the past
twenty years.
His secretary and ~amanuensis was
daughter of his one-time companion
and friend, the late John Desmond,
whose death occurred when the girl
was barely ten years of age.
Brood, on hearing Of the mans
death, Immediately made inquiries con
corning the condition in which he had
left his wife and child, with the result
that Mrs. Desmond was installed as
housekeeper in the New York house
and the daughter given every adyan-
tage in the way Of education. Des-
mond had left nothing in the shape Of
riches except undiminished love for
his wife and a diary kept during those
perilous days before he met and mar
ried her. This diary was being incor-
porated in the history Of James
Brood's adventures, BY consent Of the
widow, and was to speak for Brood
utter for himself. In these pages John
Desmond was to tell his own story, in
his own way, for Brood's love for his
friend was broad enough ven to ad-
nit OF that. He was to share his life
in retrospect with Desmond and the
two old men as he had shared it with
them in reality.
Lydia's room, adjoining her moth
er's, was on the third floor at the foot
Of the small stairway leading up to
the prescribed retreat at the top OF
the house. There was a small sitting
room off the two bed chambers, given
over entirely to Mrs. Desmond and her
daughter. In this little room, Frederic
Brood spent many a quiet, happy hour
The Desmonds. mother and daughter
understood and pitied the lonely boy
who came to the big house soon after
they were themselves installed. His
heart, which had many sores, expand
ed and glowed in the warmth Of thei,
kindness and affection; the plague O
unfriendliness that was his by absorb
ton gave way before this unexpected
kindness, not Immediately, it is true
but completely in the end.
BY nature he was slow to RESPOND
to the advances Of others; his life ha(
been such that ayarice accounted fo1
all that he received from others IN Thu
shape of respect and consideration
He was prone to discount a friendl,
II dItlIudc Iva IA oiliRAC@A . tAoe 4
his experience all friendships wer,
married by the fact that their sincerit,
rested entirely upon the generosity 0
the man who paid for them-his ia
Their. No n had loved him for him
self; no one had given him an unseli
ish thought in all the years of hi
boyhood.
At first he held himself aloof from
the Desmonds; he was slow to SUI
render. He suspected them of tn
same motives that had been the basi
of all previous attachments. When a
last he realized that they were no
like the others, his cup Of JOY, lon
an empty vessel, was filed to the brin
and his happiness was without bounds
They were amazed by the TRANSFORMS
| tion. The rather sullen, unapproach
able lad became at once SO friendly
SO dependent, that had they not bee
/ acquainted with the causes behind th
5 old state Of reticence, his very jo
might have made a nuisance of hin
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