The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1915-03-25
CHAPTER u.

.SElFNF -"
Ways Of Receiving q Blow.
James Broods 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 one 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
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 nemoirs-so
called--in so far as they related to his
experiences and researches of the past
twenty years.
Lydia Desmond, the nineteen-year-oid
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-
cerning 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 advan-
tage in the way Of education. Des-
mond had left nothing in the shape Of
riches except undiminished love for
his wife and diary kept during those
perilous days before he met and mar
ried her This diary was being incor-
porated in the history of James
Broods adventures, by consent, of the
widow, and was to speak for Brood
In words he could not with modesty
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 even 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.
Lydias room, adjoining her moth
er's, was on the third floor at the foot
of the small stairway leading up tC
the prescribed retreat at the top ot
the house There was small sitting
: room off the two bed chambers, giver
over entirely to Mrs Desmond and hel
daughter. In this little room, Frederic
. Brood spent many quiet, happy hour
The Desmonds, mother and daughter
understood and pitied the lonely boy
. who came to the big house soon aftel
, they we're themselves installed. Hi
= heart, which had many sores, expand
: ed and gIowed in the warmth of thei
! kindness and affection; the plague o
| unfriendliness that was his by absorl
2 ton gave way before this unexpected
! kindness, not Immediately, it is true
( but completely in the end.
2 BY nature he was slow to respon
to the advances of others; his life hat
. been such that avarice accounted TO
a all that he received from others in tn
= shape Of respect and consideration
He was prone to discount friendl
attitude for the simple reason that Il
his experience all friendships wer
!, marred by the fact that their sincerit
rested entirely upon the generosity Q
g the man who paid for them-his fe
9 ther. No one had loved him for hin
j. self; no one had given him an unsell
g ish thought in all the years of hi
s boyhood.
l At first he held himself aloof fror
, the Desmonds; he was slow to SUI
render. He suspected them Of tn
g same motives that had been the basi
of all previous attachments. When g
d last he realized that they were nc
like the others, his cup Of joy, Ion
r an empty vessel, was filled to the bril-
e and his happiness was without bound
g They were amazed by the transforms
d tion. The rather sullen, unapproacl
g able lad became at once so friendl,
y so dependent, that had they not bee
n acquainted with the causes behind tn
Is old state of reticence, his very jo
10 might have made nuisance Of hir
it He followed Mrs. Desmond about
c. very much the same spirit that Il
a spires hungry dog; he watched h
with eager, half-famished eyes;
% was on her heels four-f1fths Of IL