The Romance and Tragedy | Page 4

a finish without having to consult my employer.
In October, 1870, Mr. Derham told me he had decided to give up the
business and accept an offer which had been made him by one of the
large importing firms, to go to England as its foreign representative.
He proposed that I take his business, paying him for the good-will
twenty-five per cent of the profits for three years.
As I was not yet twenty years of age, he thought me too young to
assume the business alone, and advised a partnership on equal terms
with a Mr. Bulkley, then doing a brokerage business in a line that
would work in well with ours, it being his idea to combine the two.
Adam Bulkley, a tall, handsome fellow of thirty-five, was a personal
friend of Mr. Derham. He was a captain in the Seventh Regiment and
had seen service. A man of attractive personality, he had many friends
and had married the daughter of one of the wealthiest hide and leather
brokers in the "swamp."
I do not know why, but in my first interview with this man I took an

aversion to him. I tried to convince Mr. Derham that I could do better
without a partner, but he thought otherwise, and not unnaturally, under
the circumstances, I allowed matters to take their course as he planned
them, and the partnership was made for a period of three years.
Early in November Mr. Derham sailed for England, leaving as his
successor the firm of Bulkley & Stowe.
CHAPTER II
I MEET MY AFFINITY

My home was in Brooklyn. On my mother's side the family came from
the old Dutch settlers of that section of Greater New York. My mother's
father was a commissioned officer in the war of 1812. My father came
from Connecticut, of English ancestry. I used to tell my mother the
only thing I could never forgive her was that I was born in Brooklyn,
and I have never gotten over my dislike for the place, though it is
nearly thirty years since I left there.
The family for generations back have been Episcopalians, and from
earliest childhood I was accustomed to attend regularly Sunday-school
and church services.
After my father's failure we moved into a house on St. James Place, and
our church home was old St. Luke's, on Clinton avenue. Doctor Diller,
the rector, who lost his life in the burning of a steamboat on the East
River, was a life-long friend of the family, and my social intercourse
was chiefly with the young people of his church.
Mr. Sherman, the treasurer and senior warden of the church and
superintendent of the Sunday-school, a fine old gentleman, now
gathered to his fathers, was one of Hon. Seth Low's "Cabinet," when he
was Mayor of Brooklyn. Seth Low, by the way, is the same age as
myself, and we were schoolmates at the Polytechnic Institute.

As librarian of the Sunday-school and one of the committee in charge
of the social meetings of the young people, I became intimate with Mr.
Sherman and his family.
On December 20th, 1870, the first sociable of the season was held and I
had looked forward to it with considerable interest, owing to the fact
that a niece of Mr. Sherman, residing in Chicago and then visiting him
for the winter, was to be present. I had heard the young lady spoken of
in such glowing terms that I anticipated much pleasure in meeting her.
When the evening came and I met Miss Wilson, I must confess I was
not deeply impressed, and I have since learned that the lady, who had
heard much of me from her cousin, Miss Sherman, regarded me with
indifference.
On this occasion, the saying that "first impressions go a great way" was
disproved, for two weeks later, after returning from the second sociable,
where I again met Miss Wilson, I said to my sister, whom I had
escorted:
"What do you think of Miss Wilson"?
"A very charming girl" she replied, and I then told her I had lost my
heart and was determined to win her for my wife.
Miss Wilson was of the brunette type. Her face, surmounted by a mass
of dark brown, silky hair, was most attractive. A clear olive complexion,
charming features, and beneath long lashes, large brilliant eyes. Her
figure, was finely proportioned and graceful.
Endowed with unusual common sense and well educated she was a
most interesting conversationalist, while her voice was musical and
well modulated.
Why I did not discover all these charms on the occasion of our first
meeting I never have been able to understand, unless it was because our
intercourse on that evening was limited to little more than a formal
introduction.

Thereafter, I sought every