well. A splendid pair of elephant tusks stood in a corner. A fine head
of the sheep of Tibet, _ovus poli_--and I prize none of my trophies
more, unless it be the fine robe of the Chinese mountain tiger--looked
full front at us from above the fireplace. My rod racks, and those
which supported my guns and rifles, were here and there about the
room. The whole gave a jaunty atmosphere to my home. I had gone
soberly about the business of sport; and in these days, that can be
practised most successfully by a man with much leisure and unstinted
means.

My books lay about everywhere, also, books which perhaps would not
have appealed to all. My copies of the Vedas, many works on the
Buddhist faith, and translations from Confucius, lay side by side
with that Bible which we Christians have almost forgot. Here, too,
stood my desk with its cases of preserved mosquitoes--for this year I
was studying mosquitoes as an amusement. I had collected all the
mosquito literature of the world, and my books, in French, German and
English, lay near my great microscope. I had passed many happy hours
here in the oblivion of mental concentration, always a delight with
me, now grown almost a necessity if I were to escape the worst of all
habits, that of introspection and self-pity.

My piano and my violins also were in full sight; for the world of
music, as well as the world of sport and youth, I was deliberately
opening for myself, also in exchange for that closed world of affairs
which I had abandoned. Indeed, all manners of the impedimenta of a
well-to-do Japanese-cared-for bachelor were in evidence. To me, each
object was familiar and was cherished. I had never felt need to
apologize to any gentleman for my quarters or their contents--or to
any woman, for no woman had ever seen my home. I may admit that,
contrary to the belief of some, I was a rich man, far richer that I
had need or care to be; and since it was not due to my own ability
altogether nor in response to any real ambition of my own, I know I
will be pardoned for simply stating the truth. My one great ambition
in life was to forget; but if that might be best obtained in sport, in
study, or amid the gentle evidences of good living, so much the
better. Many men had called my father, stern and masterful man that he
was, a robber, a thief, a pirate--in great part, I suspect, in envy
that they themselves had not attained a like stature in similar
achievement. But no one had ever called