III

I had always been told that my uncle’s home was one of unusual magnificence but
placed in such an undesirable quarter of the city as to occasion surprise that so much
money should have been lavished in embellishing a site which in itself was
comparatively worthless. And yet while I was thus in a measure prepared for what I
was to see, I found the magnificence of the house as well as the unattractiveness of the
surroundings much greater than anything my imagination had presumed to picture.
The fact that this man of many millions lived not only in the business section but in
the least prosperous portion of it was what I noted first. I could hardly believe that the
street we entered was his street until I saw that its name was the one to which our
letters had been uniformly addressed. Old fashioned houses, all decent but of the
humbler sort, with here and there a sprinkling of shops, lined the way which led up to
the huge area of park and dwelling which owned him for its master. Beyond, more
street and rows of even humbler dwellings. Why, the choice of this spot for a palace? I
tried to keep this question out of my countenance, as we turned into the driveway, and
the beauties of the Bartholomew home burst upon me.
I shall find it a difficult house to describe. It is so absolutely the product of a dominant
mind bound by no architectural conventions that a mere observer like myself could
only wonder, admire and remain silent.
It is built of stone with a curious admixture of wood at one end for which there seems
to be no artistic reason.[Pg 17] However, one forgets this when once the picturesque
effect of the whole mass has seized upon the imagination. To what this effect is due I
have never been able to decide. Perhaps the exact proportion of part to part may
explain it, or the peculiar grouping of its many chimneys each of individual design, or
more likely still, the way its separate roofs slope into each other, insuring a continuous
line of beauty. Whatever the cause, the result is as pleasing as it is startling, and with
this expression of delight in its general features, I will proceed to give such details of
its scope and arrangement as are necessary to a full understanding of my story.
Approached by a double driveway, its great door of entrance opened into what I
afterwards found to be a covered court taking the place of an ordinary hall.
Beyond this court, with its elaborate dome of glass sparkling in the sunlight, rose the
main façade with its two projecting wings flanking the court on either side; the one on
the right to the height of three stories and the one on the left to two, thus leaving to
view in the latter case a row of mullioned windows in line with the façade already
mentioned.
It was here that wood became predominate, allowing a display of ornamentation,
beautiful in itself, but oddly out of keeping with the adjoining stone-work.
Hemming this all in, but not too closely, was a group of wonderful old trees
concealing, as I afterwards learned, stables and a collection of outhouses. The whole
worthy of its owner and like him in its generous proportions, its unconventionality and
a sense of something elusive and perplexing, suggestive of mystery, which same may
or may not have been in the builder’s mind when he fashioned this strange structure in
his dreams.
Uncle was watching me. Evidently I was not as successful [Pg 18] in hiding my
feelings as I had supposed. As we stepped from the auto on to the platform leading to
the front door—which I noticed as a minor detail, was being held open to us by a man
in waiting quite in baronial style—he remarked:
“You have many fine homes in England, but none I dare say, built on the same model
as this. There is a reason for the eccentricities you notice. Not all of this house is new.
A certain portion dates back a hundred years. I did not wish to demolish this; so the
new part, such as you see it, had to be fashioned around it. But you will find it a home
both comfortable and hospitable. Welcome to Quenton Court.”
Here he ushered me inside.
Was I prepared for what I saw?
Hardly. I had looked for splendor but not for such a dream of beauty as recalled the
wonders of old Granada.
Moorish pillars! Moorish arches in a continuous colonnade extending around three
sides of the large square! Above, a dome of amber-tinted glass through which the
sunbeams of a cloudless day poured down upon a central fountain tossing aloft its
bejeweled sprays from a miracle of carven stonework. Encircling the last a tesselated
pavement covered with rugs such as I had never seen in my limited experience of
interior furnishings. No couches, no moveables of any sort here, but color—color
everywhere, not glaring, but harmonized to an exquisite degree. Through the arches
on either side highly appointed rooms could be seen; but to one entering from the
front, all that met the eye was the fountain at play backed by a flight of marble steps
curving up to a gallery which, like the steps themselves, supported a screen pierced by
arches and cut to the fineness of lace-work.
And it was enough; artistry could go no further.
[Pg 19]
“You like it?”
The hearty tone called me from my dreams.
“There is but one thing lacking,” I smiled; “the figure of my cousin Orpha descending
those wonderful stairs.”
For an instant his eyes narrowed. Then he assumed what was probably his business air
and said kindly enough but in a way to stop all questioning:
“Orpha is in the Berkshires.” Then laughingly, as we proceeded to enter one of the
rooms, “Orpha does look well coming down those stairs.”
She was not mentioned again between us for many days, and then only casually. Yet
his heart was full of her. I knew this from the way he talked about her to others.