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Title: The House of Toys
Author: Henry Russell Miller
Illustrator: Frank Snapp
Release Date: February 13, 2008 [EBook #24603]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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INDIANAPOLIS
THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
This is not a fairy tale, although you will find some old friends here.
There is, for example, a witch, a horrid old creature who tricks the best
and wisest of us: Circumstance is one of her many names, and a horde of
grisly goblins follow in her train. For crabbed beldame an aunt, who
meant well but was rich and used to having her own way, will do fairly
well. Good fairies there are, quite a number; you must decide for
yourself which one is the best. But the tale has chiefly to do with a
youth to whom the witch had made one gift, well knowing that one would
not be enough. Together with a girl--a sunflower who did not thrive in
the shade, as Jim Blaisdell has said--he undertook to build, among other
things, a house of love wherein she should dwell and reign. But when it
was built he met another girl, who was--say, an iris. There are white
He was, then, tall, as well favored as is good for a young man, with
straight-gazing though at times rather dreamy gray-green eyes, kinky
brown hair and a frank friendly manner that was very engaging. Since his
tenth year he had been alone in the world, with a guardian trust company
for sole relative. But he tried to make up for that by having many
friends. He did not have to try very hard.
Men liked him, which was much to his credit. Those near his own age
often made him a confidant in such matters as their ambitions and loves.
His elders saw to it that he was asked not only to the things their wives
and sisters gave but to week-ends in the family bosom as well.
And women liked him, which was not so much to his credit, since we judge
our own sex far more wisely than the other. Old ladies praised his
manners and visited his rooms, taking an active interest in his intimate
wardrobe. Younger women flirted with him ad libitum and used him
unconscionably, sure that he would take no advantage. Girls of sixteen
or thereabouts secretly held him in awe and spun romances around him. In
return he gave them all a sort of reverence, thinking them superfine
creatures who could do no meanness or wrong. He envied his men friends
who had mothers or sisters or wives to be served; in the life of a young
man alone in the world there are gaps that even pleasant friendships can
not fill. He had a dream over which he used to burn much tobacco: of a
day when he should not be alone. He awaited impatiently the coming of
that splendid day.
Therefore he dabbled recklessly in the tender passion. About twice a
year on an average he fell experimentally in love. It made him very sad
that after a brief captivity his heart was always set free.
Moreover, there was something about him that made his friends, men as
well as women, say to one another, "Some of these days that Davy Quentin
is going to do big things." You have known young men like that; as often
as not they continue through life a promise unfulfilled.
In David's case the faith survived stubbornly on scanty nourishment. He
had been left a little patrimony sufficient to carry him beyond college,
where he smoked the usual number of cigarettes, drank a limited quantity
of beer and managed to pass his examinations respectably though not even
_cum laude_. After that he studied architecture, with more distinction
because he had a real enthusiasm for the work, especially the
ecclesiastical branch. And it happened that soon after he hung out his
shingle he won a prize offered by a magazine for plans for a
three-thousand-dollar bungalow. This, when they heard of it, fortified
the faith of his friends, who carelessly supposed the prize to have been
much bigger than it was and a brilliant career thus to have been safely
launched. Oddly enough, however, it never occurred to them to lend a
hand at the launching. They took its success for granted and saved their
help and their business for young men, such as the energetic but
otherwise untalented Dick Holden, of whom less was expected. It is so
hard to make friends understand that even a brilliant career needs
support at first.
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