CHAPTER XXIV 



In Retrospect 



XHE RECORD of the evolution of a personality, set 

 forth objectively, can be a contribution to human biology. 

 I do not say that I can succeed in being objective, but I 

 am going to try. 



I was so shy and timorous up to the day of my marriage 

 that I bid fair to be a complete recluse all my life. The 

 gentle but firm impact of my wife's personality soon be- 

 gan to change this. She gave up dances and parties and a 

 multitude of admirers for some years of travel, which she 

 certainly, to say the least, never yearned for. Gradually 

 she brought me around to a willingness to meet people and 

 even, for some years, to do a considerable amount of enter- 

 taining until the devastating blow of our only son Wil- 

 liam's death changed the whole course of our lives. 



I should need to be a Milton to sum up Bill's peerless 

 personality. I can still sit down on well-remembered stones 

 or logs up in New Hampshire and feel Bill's presence just 

 as if he were beside me. He liked the woods as I did, loved 

 to shoot and fish, and did both extraordinarily well for 

 one of his years. He was built like a Barbour — tall, broad- 

 shouldered, and very powerful. From somewhere he in- 

 herited a perfect sweetness of disposition and temper. In 

 this respect he far outshone either of his parents. He was 

 a fine athlete and a good student, and cared nothing for 

 hardship or discomfort. 



