The Mansion
()
About this ebook
Henry Van Dyke
Henry van Dyke was an American religious writer, lecturer, and clergyman. Educated at the Theological Seminary at Princeton University, van Dyke returned to the school after his graduation as a Professor of English Literature and became an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1913 he was appointed by President Woodrow Wilson, his former classmate, as the ambassador to the Netherlands and Luxembourg, a job that he maintained throughout the First World War. His most famous short stories include "The Story of the Other Wise Man" and "The First Christmas Tree", which, like many of his other works, centered around moral and religious themes. After a lifetime of public service and religious leadership, Henry van Dyke died in 1933 at the age of 80.
Read more from Henry Van Dyke
Santa's Christmas Library: 400+ Christmas Novels, Stories, Poems, Carols & Legends (Illustrated Edition): The Gift of the Magi, A Christmas Carol, Silent Night, The Three Kings, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, The Heavenly Christmas Tree, Little Women, The Tale of Peter Rabbit… Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Greatest Christmas Stories of All Time - Premium Collection: 90+ Classics in One Volume (Illustrated): The Gift of the Magi, The Holy Night, The Mistletoe Bough, A Christmas Carol, The Heavenly Christmas Tree, A Letter from Santa Claus, The Fir Tree, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King… Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Mansion
Related ebooks
The Mansion Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Henry Van Dyke - The Mansion: “The woods would be quiet if no bird sang but the one that sang best.” Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mansion (Illustrated) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Portrait Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Life of Roger Langdon, Told by himself. With additions by his daughter Ellen Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSowing and Reaping: A Temperance Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTales and Fantasies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStories written by an abolitionist American woman – Volume 4 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLast Essays of Maurice Hewlett Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLove Eternal Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRichard Vandermarck: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBarnaby Rudge Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKipps The Story of a Simple Soul Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSowing and Reaping Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Watch—Work—Wait Or, The Orphan's Victory Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe House of Heine Brothers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBealby: A Holiday Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUncle Silas: A Tale of Bartram-Haugh Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBunyan (Barnes & Noble Digital Library): English Men of Letters Series Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHatchie, the Guardian Slave; or, The Heiress of Bellevue A Tale of the Mississippi and the South-west Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Pillars of the House; Or, Under Wode, Under Rode, V1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Secret of a Happy Home Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe House of Heine Brothers, in Munich Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLove Eternal Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKind Hearts and Coronets: Israel Rank Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Meg, of Valencia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNobody's Story: "There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts." Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Love and Lucy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCrimes of Charity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBarnaby Rudge Illustrated Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Children's Holidays & Celebrations For You
The Good Egg Presents: The Great Eggscape!: An Easter And Springtime Book For Kids Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Magic Pinata/Piñata mágica: Bilingual Spanish-English Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Cool Bean Presents: As Cool as It Gets Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Blue Truck's Valentine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Berenstain Bears Bless Our Gramps and Gran Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frog and Toad: A Little Book of Big Thoughts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Curious George Haunted Halloween Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Berenstain Bears' Harvest Festival Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Curious George Makes a Valentine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flat Stanley: His Original Adventure! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little House on the Prairie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pete the Cat: Five Little Bunnies: An Easter And Springtime Book For Kids Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Laugh-Out-Loud Awesome Jokes for Kids Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Scary Stories 3 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frosty the Snowman Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Curious George Christmas Countdown Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amelia Bedelia Chapter Book #1: Amelia Bedelia Means Business Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pete the Cat Falling for Autumn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5275+ Halloween Jokes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChristmas Stories: Fun Christmas Stories for Kids Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Twelfth Night Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Halloween: Scary Short Stories for Kids Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Night Before Christmas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Beauty (Illustrated): Classic of World Literature Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tea Parties: Delicious Sweets & Savory Treats to Share Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Witch of Blackbird Pond: A Newbery Award Winner Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Halloween Moon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sandman and the War of Dreams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Mansion
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Mansion - Henry Van Dyke
The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mansion, by Henry Van Dyke
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: The Mansion
Author: Henry Van Dyke
Posting Date: July 23, 2008 [EBook #704] Release Date: October, 1996
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MANSION ***
Produced by Michael Leonard
The Mansion
By
Henry van Dyke
There was an air of calm and reserved opulence about the Weightman mansion that spoke not of money squandered, but of wealth prudently applied. Standing on a corner of the Avenue no longer fashionable for residence, it looked upon the swelling tide of business with an expression of complacency and half-disdain.
The house was not beautiful. There was nothing in its straight front of chocolate-colored stone, its heavy cornices, its broad, staring windows of plate glass, its carved and bronze-bedecked mahogany doors at the top of the wide stoop, to charm the eye or fascinate the imagination. But it was eminently respectable, and in its way imposing. It seemed to say that the glittering shops of the jewelers, the milliners, the confectioners, the florists, the picture-dealers, the furriers, the makers of rare and costly antiquities, retail traders in luxuries of life, were beneath the notice of a house that had its foundations in the high finance, and was built literally and figuratively in the shadow of St. Petronius' Church.
At the same time there was something self-pleased and congratulatory in the way in which the mansion held its own amid the changing neighborhood. It almost seemed to be lifted up a little, among the tall buildings near at hand, as if it felt the rising value of the land on which it stood.
John Weightman was like the house into which he had built himself thirty years ago, and in which his ideals and ambitions were incrusted. He was a self-made man. But in making himself he had chosen a highly esteemed pattern and worked according to the approved rules. There was nothing irregular, questionable, flamboyant about him.
He was solid, correct, and justly successful.
His minor tastes, of course, had been carefully kept up to date.
At the proper time, pictures of the Barbizon masters, old English plate and portraits, bronzes by Barye and marbles by Rodin, Persian carpets and Chinese porcelains, had been introduced to the mansion. It contained a Louis Quinze reception-room, an Empire drawing-room, a Jacobean dining-room, and various apartments dimly reminiscent of the styles of furniture affected by deceased monarchs. That the hallways were too short for the historic perspective did not make much difference. American decorative art is capable de tout, it absorbs all periods. Of each period Mr. Weightman wished to have something of the best. He understood its value, present as a certificate, and prospective as an investment.
It was only in the architecture of his town house that he remained conservative, immovable, one might almost say Early-Victorian-Christian. His country house at Dulwich-on-the-Sound was a palace of the Italian Renaissance. But in town he adhered to an architecture which had moral associations, the Nineteenth-Century-Brownstone epoch. It was a symbol of his social position, his religious doctrine, and even, in a way, of his business creed.
A man of fixed principles,
he would say, "should express them in the looks of his house. New