After this, the tide of
fashion began to set steadily northward, as, indeed, in New York,
thanks to the narrow channel in which it flows, it is obliged to do,
and the great hum of traffic rolled farther to the right and left of
Broadway. By the time the Doctor changed his residence the murmur of
trade had become a mighty uproar, which was music in the ears of all
good citizens interested in the commercial development, as they
delighted to call it, of their fortunate isle. Dr. Sloper's interest
in this phenomenon was only indirect--though, seeing that, as the
years went on, half his patients came to be overworked men of
business, it might have been more immediate--and when most of his
neighbours' dwellings (also ornamented with granite copings and large
fanlights) had been converted into offices, warehouses, and shipping
agencies, and otherwise applied to the base uses of commerce, he
determined to look out for a quieter home. The ideal of quiet and of
genteel retirement, in 1835, was found in Washington Square, where
the Doctor built himself a handsome, modern, wide-fronted house, with
a big balcony before the drawing-room windows, and a flight of marble
steps ascending to a portal which was also faced with white marble.
This structure, and many of its neighbours, which it exactly
resembled, were supposed, forty years ago, to embody the last results
of architectural science, and they remain to this day very solid and
honourable dwellings.
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