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personal friend, and from the beginning the house adapted itself with a kindly readiness to whatever plans developed under its roof.
As will be seen, these were not few, and were sometimes of considerable moment.
For his work also the house was extremely convenient.
His habits in this respect were, however, singularly independent of place and circumstance.
Unlike most studious men, he had no fixed spot in the house for writing.
Although the library, with the usual outfit of well-filled shelves, maps, large tables, etc., held his materials, he brought what he needed for the evening by preference to the drawing-room, and there, with his paper on his knee, and his books for reference on a chair beside him, he wrote and read as busily as if he were quite alone.
Sometimes when dancing and music were going on among the young people of the family and their guests, he drew a little table into the corner of the room, and continued his occupations as undisturbed and engrossed as if he had been in complete solitude,—only looking up from time to time with a pleased smile or an apt remark,which showed that he did not lose but rather enjoyed what was going on about him.
His children's friends were his friends.
As
Houghton, Mifflin and company, New York, Boston, 1885.
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