The day I arrived, and before I saw him, I was very much impressed with
the simplicity yet distinction of the inn or sanitarium or "repair
shop," as subsequently I learned he was accustomed to refer to it,
perched upon a rise of ground and commanding a quite wonderful panorama.
It was spring and quite warm and bright. The cropped enclosure which
surrounded it, a great square of green fenced with high, well-trimmed
privet, was good to look upon, level and smooth. The house, standing in
the center of this, was large and oblong and gray, with very simple
French windows reaching to the floor and great wide balustraded
balconies reaching out from the second floor, shaded with awnings and
set with rockers. The land on which this inn stood sloped very gradually
to the Sound, miles away to the southeast, and the spires of churches
and the gables of villages rising in between, as well as various
toy-like sails upon the water, were no small portion of its charm. To
the west for a score of miles the green-covered earth rose and fell in
undulating beauty, and here again the roofs and spires of nearby
villages might in fair weather be seen nestling peacefully among the
trees. Due south there was a suggestion of water and some peculiar
configuration, which by day seemed to have no significance other than
that which attached to the vague outlines of a distant landscape. By
night, however, the soft glow emanating from myriads of lights
identified it as the body and length of the merry, night-reveling New
York. Northward the green waves repeated themselves unendingly until
they passed into a dim green-blue haze.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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