Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/266

 glaziers was employed, and out of the general chaos of bush and bramble arose the minarets of a modern palace, with wide, well-ordered grounds and every comfort one could wish for. Mr. Gould seemed to take great pleasure in planning the arrangements for his future country residence. For awhile all but the general detail of his business was put in the background. Every few days he would journey up to Irvington to see how matters were progressing. It may be safely said that these were the first leisure days of Mr. Gould's life. His eyes grew brighter, his step more buoyant, and he began to look upon these little excursions as a pleasant diversion.

Sometimes he would take his younger children with him, and their unaffected happiness was another source of relaxation for the care-worn millionaire. Previous to this time money-making had been Mr. Gould's exclusive thought. Thereafter it became to a certain degree intermittent.

Mr. Gould's house on the Hudson, above Irvington, was called Lyndhurst. It is a stone structure of Elizabethan architecture, situated on a high green bluff overlooking the river and surrounded with a well-kept park. The entrance to the park is about a mile from Irvington, and is marked by two tall granite posts. A stone porter's lodge is by the gate. Passing into the grounds one sees on every side the marks of the gardener's care and the skill of the landscape gardener. There are not too many trees, only enough, and they are so grouped that while they make the house at the end of the driveway