The Siege of Youth

e was ideality. Flowers bloomed, the birds sang; trees and hazy clouds and mountains, the sea, with its never-ending beauty, all led him. Presently he chose art. It was his desire not to be material like his father, and I doubt if he could have succeeded but for his money, which lay back of his ambition, bracingly. He developed just enough talent to interest his relations. All prophesied a future for him. Jameson responded to the proper moment, when it arrived, but he had not reflected upon the question according to the boy's temperament. He did not ask himself whether Julian could stand the life of the city as he himself had done. Life was bounded by his own egotistic views, and he passedout from the Joy household, taking Julian with him, into his own bustling life. Later he might have hesitated, but just at that time he combated the mother's love in a purely commercial manner. He felt that it was his duty to old Joy, and he was prepared to fulfil the obligation ; but Mrs. Joy's point of view annoyed him in a peculiar manner. His own mother had died when he was too young to analyze this form of affection. Mrs. Joy was not complex at all in her attitude concerning Julian's career or his future. She did not want him to leave her, she said simply, and sat staring helplessly at Jameson. She saw where Jameson had changed himself, and she felt an unacknowledged alarm concerning these changes. It would be terrible if Julian were to come back some day to her, a fin... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.