The Titans by John Jakes

too young-and too preoccupied with himself-to be of any assistance when Jephtha first arrived in New York. It was Michael who had helped him rebuild his ruined life. Almost by accident. Throughout 1853 and "54 Jephtha had gone through a period of almost total despair. His wife informed him by letter that she was obtaining a divorce, and he would be denied the privilege of seeing his sons again. Another letter in '55 announced she had married the actor Edward Lamont, whom she'd met while visiting her father's relatives in Charleston. During those years Jephtha hadn't lived-merely existed in the rebuilt house in Madison Square. He repaid Michael's charity as best he could, working as a handyman and doing chores the servants found too arduous or too distasteful. Of course, Michael reminded him often that he really didn't need to spend his days doing drudge work. He was a rich man. Amanda had proved a good steward of the profits of the Ophir mining operation in California's Sierra mountains. She had invested those profits in quality stocks, further compounding the wealth that belonged to the Virginia branch of the family. But Jephtha had an almost childlike disregard for money-perhaps a legacy from his Shoshoni mother, who had taught him to place a higher value on the mind and the spirit. He had no desire to travel to California The Titans97 to learn the mining business. Mathematics and all the other associated skills required for successful management of a fortune were foreign to him. He was content to continue the old arrangement; to let the family's financial advisers, and Louis when he came of age, administer his holdings. At his death the accumulated riches would pass directly to Gideon, Matthew and Jeremiah. A document was drawn up by the Kent attorneys guaranteeing it. Jephtha wasn't sure wealth would benefit his sons. It became increasingly clear that money hadn't improved Louis Kent's character very much. If anything, the young man had grown arrogant because of his wealth. Still, Jephtha knew he had no right to deny his sons their heritage when he died; nor would he ever attempt to do so. One of the stormiest periods of his relationship with his former wife concerned that very point. When he'd signed the paper permitting Amanda to handle the Ophir funds, Fan had accused him of defrauding the boys. It had been one of her most vituperative outbursts. The memory of it could still generate hatred of a most un-Christian sort. Gradually, Jephtha and Michael formed a strong friendship. They debated endlessly about the slave question. Michael was candid about his own difficult transition from the behavior patterns of a boy growing up in the Five Points slum. There, the immigrant Irish hated black men because black men, freed, would compete for menial jobs-the only kind the immigrant Irish could get. Amanda had brought Michael a long way from that attitude. He now believed America would have to decide, soon and for all time, whether the principles of equality on which the country was founded did or did not apply to all men. It was during one of their long night chats that Jephtha had first shown the young Irishman a portion of 98Colonel Lee the record of his own pilgrimage of the soul. His carefully kept journals; eighteen copybooks whose contents spanned the years since he had come east to attend the Bible college. Michael was taken with Jephtha's writing style- something to which Jephtha had never given any special notice. Michael grew excited, struck by an idea. Jephtha ought to use his brain for something more constructive than shoveling up turds in the coach house behind the mansion. Michael made a specific suggestion. At first Jephtha laughed. But Michael was persuasive. So Jephtha had permitted the younger man to introduce him to Theophilus Payne. Tentatively, andwitha feeling of great trepidation, he'd gone to work for Payne. Initially he'd been confined to a desk in Printing House Square, doing the simplest sort of