Harp's Manor

INSTALLMENT I

March 10, 1928

The narrative I am about to take up, I am afraid, shall be a responsibility that remains draped over my shoulders for some time. Of course it has been elected to be my duty to be the record-keeper; the only other person possibly suited for the job, that Connolly fellow, has already tossed it to me. Fine! It is his fault that he shall be henceforth referred to in the most demeaning and reproachful terms. I spare no sympathy for a man who forces his obligations upon a woman with no guilty retrospection. Nathaniel Connolly, if you are reading this (and I know you are; you would be), you should be ashamed of yourself!

Now that I have gotten that out of the way, I may properly introduce myself and the conditions under which I shall be writing henceforth for an undefined time. My name is Rosetta Thornton. You may know me better as Richard Mills, though I have come to despise that name. It is very restricting to me, and I shall ignore it going on, as should you. If you recognize the name but cannot place it, I shall jog your memory. My first novel, Winona's Way, was very popular in serial format, ending about a month or two ago from this date. Cheers if you read every installment. I appreciate you greatly.

Enough about me; I'm not writing an autobiography.

About a month ago, directly after the final installment of my novel, I received a letter from a certain Mr. W. Harp. It requested that I kindly participate in an experiment hosted by him, and to move my lodgings from the little apartment in New York from which I currently write, to Harp's Manor. The letter further explained that Mr. Harp, a very prosperous man through Wall Street, favoured himself to be a connoisseur of the arts, and took it upon himself to gather the most promising young artists here in America and congregate them in a collective haven. To quote him directly, the goal of this experiment is to "combine the greatest and most favorable artists of our time, in a mansion fit for a king, so that the many spheres of creativity may influence and mingle with each other."

I was a little hesitant at first. I am no wealthy lady; the offer of a mansion should have been more than enough to tempt me. However, I was unsure of the intentions of Mr. W. Harp, and doubted whether or not it was a ploy to kidnap or murder me. (You can never be sure of mysterious letters nowadays. The public eye is one I do not enjoy holding the attention of.)

I of course overcame this hesitation after my personal interview with Harp. His kindly manner and jovial countenance have proven to me his purely altruistic rationale. I am to travel to Harp's Manor before night has fallen on this day. Firstly, however, I must write this introduction, so as to make it available before the paper is published this week.

Harp's Manor shall, with the consent of the public, be the narrative of all twenty of us that are to be sent to live in the mansion Mr. Harp has so graciously bestowed upon us. Originally, as I have stated before, it was to be written by Nathaniel Connolly; but that career he has shirked, and I find myself struggling to finish writing this before the hour arrives that I must deliver this to the post. (Mr. Connolly, double shame on you for putting a lady in a position of distress and anxiety!) New installments shall be released weekly, cataloging, for the general public, the adventures and accidents that shall befall us, as they certainly shall.

Time flies by me; the hurry I have been put into breathes down my neck! What have I left to explain? Perhaps I shall further detail the conception and structure of the experiment I shall be partaking in, to the best of my knowledge. Looking back, yes; I do believe I blew over this portion rather hastily.

Mr. William Harp, a respectable gentleman by birth, invested in the United States Steel Corporation a while back, and is now reaping the profits. As I stated before, he adores the arts: drawing and painting, music, literature, you name it, he has one of us here to represent a facet of his love. With great sums of money to do with whatever he pleases, Mr. Harp decided to benefit mankind through his devotion to the genius of creative expression. It took some time to set all the correct measures in place; housing had to be found, and people had to be chosen; but after months of his planning, Harp's Manor shall finally be realized in a few short days.