Jennette Lee

“ Fosdick hesitated. "I don't know that I can put it very clearly—though I've heard him talk about it often and he has dictated the details of the plan to me. ... He seems to think that the length of the period of adolescence is in direct ratio to the kind of power that is to follow it—and just as human beings, having higher power than animals, must have longer adolescence to prepare for it, so genius must have a longer period of adolescence than the ordinary man—time in which to find itself and prepare for its special function in the world. ”

“ He would save time—time and Grant Healy's strength—by telling him while they waited.
"That is the sort of thing he wants to talk with you about—when he sees you," he said quickly.
The man stared a question.
"About the recognition of genius," said Fosdick. "And a fund for it. He has always had an idea that some of the best material in the country is wasted on account of what he calls the adolescence of genius—its crucial time, when it ought to be tided over." ”

“ Binney, the critic and editor, read the poem and looked into the fire, a smile of content on his full lips.
"That is rare work!" he said slowly. "Who is the man?" He turned again to the title-page. But the title-page bore no name.
"He is a protégé of Mr. Healy's," said Fosdick. "We have been seeing the book through the press. I think Mr. Healy likes his poems especially."
The other did not respond. He was deep in the book.
"Wonderful!" he said under his breath. "Wonderful! The man is a genius! Where has he kept himself hidden—to write like this!" ”

“ The great figure lying on the bed had seemed invulnerable, a man of steel, as he fought his way up in the business world from a mere stripling threatened by the gauzy film of his tenuous lungs to a man of iron power. ”

“ Binney, editor of the Searchlight, should have charge of a fund and administer it. He could be trusted to recognize genius—if any man could—and he was almost the only man alive whom Grant Healy would have trusted to do it.
He lay looking into the darkened room, going over the last details in his mind. ... Setting his house in order. One or two things that had always puzzled him, he saw suddenly were very simple. ... Give him a dozen years and he could rebuild the world—reshape this tangled scheme of things to plans of sanity!
The nurse behind her screen stirred slightly and looked out. ”

“ No—iron was not the word, the physician thought, looking down at him. Steel was more like it—and not even steel. ... Grant Healy was more alive than steel. He was a living flame, electric fire, in his resistless power. He did not override or crush men in business. ”

“ Just as a business asset, he says it is foolish to waste genius, and that these men ought to be sought out and tided over the crucial time. Otherwise they lose heart and become a drag on the community, or they overwork and die before their time. ”

“ The editor looked at him a minute.
"There is only one man in the world who could have written them," he said. "I did not recognize them at first. ... I was not looking so far back—thirty years ago, thirty at least, if not more," he said thoughtfully. "I was in college with the man who wrote them. But I did not guess that he was a genius—till too late."
"You mean—he is dead?" asked Fosdick quickly.
Binney the editor looked at him with long, slow gaze. Then he turned his head. The door had opened. The nurse entered the room. Her face was dull in its repressed sadness. ”

“ He reached out and took a book from the table and turned the leaves. It was a volume of verse—a new English poet. He read a line here and there, glancing hastily. But it was evident his thought was in the chamber overhead. He laid down the book and looked at Fosdick.
"Healy is a man of rare discrimination!" He tapped the book a little with his finger.
The secretary waited. He seemed to be listening for some slightest sound. A sudden look of decision crossed his face. He turned to the other. ”

“ Sometimes it seemed to the physician he even went a little out of his way to take up a burden that another man might have failed to see—as when the younger brother, Rolland, ran through his share of the family fortune in a year and came to Grant for aid. ”

“ The unspoken question asked whether they should give Grant Healy his choice. With an ordinary man they would not have hesitated. They would have taken for granted that it was their duty to save the patient from suffering so terrible. ”

“ Late in the afternoon Fosdick came in alone.
"What else is there?" asked the man on the bed. There was a little glaze on the keen eyes and his voice was tired.
"No one but Binney, sir," replied the secretary. "Shall I tell him to come to-morrow?"
"No, I will see him now. I want him to administer the fund for genius that I gave you notes for. He is the best man I know for it. He can recognize genius when he sees it!" He smiled a little grimly. "Not many of us can—!" ”

“ But something of the right of kings held in this case. The man whose brain watched over the welfare of a continent had the right to say whether his brain should be lulled to its long forgetfulness free from pain, or should remain on duty to the end. ”