The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1915-09-10
CHAPTER II.

able one. That portion Of the house
which rightly may be described as
public" in order to distinguish II
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 knlck-
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
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;
single step took one from the seoate
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 ofshis hours In Sc
clusion, shut off from the rest or the
establishment as completely as II he
were the inhabitant of another world
Attended by his Hindu servant,
silent man named Ranjab, and on oc"
casions by his secretary, he saw -Dut
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
. LydiaS Desmond, the nineteen-year-old
l daughter Of his one-time companion
and friend, the late John Desmond
r whose death occurred when the girl
= was barely ten years Of age.
Y 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
d that Mrs. Desmond was installed as
J. housekeeper In the New York house
and the daughter given every advan
+" tage in the way of education. Des
T. mond had left nothing in the shape O
n riches except undiminished love fol
his wife and diary kept during those
3. perilous days before he met and mar
ried her. This diary was being incor
a uorated in the history of James
If Brood's adventures, by consent OF thu
/, widow, and was to speak for Broo'
in words he could not with modest.
.e utter for himself. In these pages Johl
Desmond was to tell his own story, Il
,e his own way, for Brood's love for hi
D. friend was broad enough even to &C
nit of that. He was to share his If
d. in retrospect with Desmond and tn
If. two old men as he had shared il wit
I'd them in reality.
IT. Lydia's room, adjoining her mott
z. er's was on the third floor at the foe
-of the small stairway leading up
lie. the prescribed retreat at the top
IS, the house. There was small sittint
er room off the two bed chambers, give
Oh over entirely to Mrs. Desmond and HI
daughter. In this little room, Freder
If. Brood spent many, quiet, happy hou
The Desmonds, mother and daughte
i'd. understood and pitjed the lonely BIZ
he who came to the big house soon aft
he they were themselves Installed. H
en-. heart, which had many sores, expan
tor ed and glowed in the warmth OF the
Till kindness and affection; the plague
nd unfriendliness that was his by absoI
he ton gave way before this unexpect
,od kindness, not Immediately, 1t is tru
nix but completely in the end.
Tile BY nature he was slow to respo
to the advances of others; his life b
TO-" been such that avarice accounted Il
b a all that he received from others in t
Re- shape of respect and considerable
He was prone to discount q friend
attitude for the simple reason that
his experience all friendships VIC
res, marred by the fact that their SINGER
rested entirely upon the generosity
ing the man who paid for them-his
the Their. No one had loved him for hi
rim. self; no one had given him an uns'
ute ish thought in all the years Of
was boyhood.
:, l At first he held himself aloof FIR
ap- the Desmonds; he was slow to s
render. He suspected them OF
ring same motives that had been the bs
of all previous attachments. When
said last he realized that they were
like the others, his cup of joy, Il
lder an empty vessel, was filed to the b
the and his happiness was without bouI
pic They were amazed by the transfer
med tion. The rather sullen, unapprot
VINO ohIo lad hecama at once so frien