The Friendly Club and Other PortraitsParsons, Francis
History
The Friendly Club and Other Portraits
Parsons, Francis
Authors, American; Hartford (Conn.) -- Biography
One remembers him chiefly as walking back and forth on the old street
between Raymond's grandfather's house and certain indefinite rooms he
dwelt in which were probably in the edifice then known as the Charter
Oak building.
The impression that persists is of one very carefully wrapped up against
the weather. He wore a long ulster, a seal-skin cap, with a visor, and
about his neck, under his iron-gray beard, a muffler was efficiently
disposed. His large, gold-rimmed spectacles gave him the customary
owlish, peering expression, but in spite of them he could not seem to
recognize us, or any one else, except when close at hand. He carried a
stout walking stick, the point of which he never raised from the ground,
but dragged after him between alternate steps and he stood so straight
that he appeared to lean a little backward. It would seem that in the
warmer seasons this habitual manner of dress must have been modified,
but there is no recollection of any other costume.
A tradition of immense learning clung about him. It was said that in his
mysterious rooms the walls were lined with books which he spent all his
time in reading. It was even whispered that he read Latin and Greek for
fun--and no higher intellectual achievement than this could be imagined.
There was something facile and careless, too, about the idea of reading
for pleasure dead languages with which we had as yet no acquaintance but
which loomed as educational obstacles in the not distant future. This
casual facility appealed to our youthful sporting spirit and compelled a
reluctant admiration. Whatever Raymond's uncle's shortcomings as an
intimate might be, he had at least reached the point where matters that
were soon to be weighty problems to us were to him merely a question of
amusement.
Raymond's grandparents lived in an old house around the corner from the
old street. Their home was, in fact, one of the oldest houses in the
city. They were people of wealth for that day and the house had been
brought up to date in the fashion of that time when the finer harmonies
of the antique were not as yet appreciated. Plate glass windows had
replaced the small panes, hard wood floors covered the fine oak planking
and varnished inside shutters had supplanted the dignified panelling of
the originals. But our aesthetic appreciations, like those of our
elders, noticed no incongruity. To us the old house was the acme of
contemporary good taste, as well as the abode of comfort and even
luxury.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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