Charles-Norton

“ Charles-Norton followed it with his eyes as it went winging, winging up in a series of lines, each of which ended in a droop, toward the high sky-scraper. And when his eyes reached, with the bird, the top of the building, they lit upon a cloud, a great white galleon of a cloud which, with all sails set, flanks opulently agleam with the swell of impalpable freights, went sliding by with streaming pennons, toward the West.
And Charles-Norton felt as though he were going to die. A great, sad yearning seemed to split his breast. He rose to his feet, his eyes upon the [Pg 79] cloud. ”

“ But the youth refused to be mollified. Though [Pg 15] he said nothing more, he kept upon Charles-Norton the snarl of his pale face and at regular intervals rubbed his ribs as though they pained him exceedingly. Charles-Norton was glad to reach his station.
That morning, in his glass cage, he muddled his columns several times. He was far from an admirable accountant at his best; but this day he was what he termed "the limit." Totals fled him like birds, with a whir of wings. A sun-gleam hypnotized him once, for he did not know how long ”

“ A private-car had a freedom, and comforts, which a public-car has not; a faint appreciation of this fact came to Charles-Norton [Pg 208] as he settled back, coatless, in his upholstered chair, and with it the first vague snuggle of readjustment. This feeling became clearer after the dainty breakfast served by Bison Billiam's white-capped cook, and expressed itself in a sigh almost of content when Bison Billiam, with the coffee, passed him a great fat cigar. Charles-Norton threw a surreptitious glance at the heavy band; it was a dollar cigar.
Life, after all, has its compensations. ”

“ Charles Norton seemed to consider an honor of large proportions. Not every first-term Congressman can hope for intimacy with a Senator. Norton believed that his work for Langdon would win him the family's gratitude and thus further his ambition to marry Carolina, the planter's oldest daughter, whose beauty made her the recipient of many attentions. ”

“ Because, to tell the truth, Charles-Norton was not absolutely happy.
He could not have told what was the matter. Mostly, it was an emptiness. An emptiness is hard to analyze. He knew that there was much of which he should be content. With the careful repression of the vagaries of his shoulders, there had come to him a new attentiveness at his [Pg 33] work. His nose, now, never wandered after passing butterflies, and his salary had been raised to twenty-two dollars a week. Also, the ridiculous flapping had gone, and the impulse to draw fool lines upon a card. ”

“ I want the audience to get excited, to palpitate! I don't want them to sit there like lambs watching a cloud, or a bird flying. Your act isn't worth two-bits a week. I want men to groan, children to scream, women to faint! Lop 'em off!"
Again Charles-Norton submitted himself to Dolly's gentle fingers and cold scissors, and repeated his act with shortened wings. This happened three times. Three times the scissors zipped, down eddied to the ground, and Charles-Norton tried again, more heavily, more soddenly, his being invaded by the emptiness of the old days, the shorn days. ”

“ I am sure that, after the easy heroes of the day are long forgot, and the noisy fames of the strenuous life shall dwindle to their essential insignificance before those of the gentle life, we shall all see in Charles Eliot Norton the eminent scholar who left the quiet of his books to become our chief citizen at the moment when he warned his countrymen of the ignominy and disaster of doing wrong. ”

“ Charles Eliot Norton stood out, in the air of the place and time—which for that matter, I think, changed much as he changed, and couldn't change much beyond his own range of experiment—with a greater salience, granting his background, I should say, than I have ever known a human figure stand out with from any: an effect involved of course in the nature of the background as well as in that of the figure. ”

“ To Charles Eliot Norton. Lamb House, Rye, May 4, 1902.
Dear Norton,—I hear with grief and concern that you have had a bad fall. In a letter received this morning you are described as better, so I hope it will have had no untoward consequences beyond the immediate shock. We need you long to abide with us in undiminished vigor and health. Our voyage was smooth, though cloudy, and we found Miss Ward a very honest and lovable girl. Henry D. Lloyd, whose name you know as that of a state-socialist writer, sat opposite to us, and proved one of the most "winning" men it was ever my fortune to know. ”

“ Mitchell and Clarke, a well-known firm of solicitors at Wymondham. Much of his time was subsequently spent in roaming over the greater part of Europe, and in about 1860 he settled in Norwich. As a scholar and a man of science Mr. Norton was possessed of a store of information such as few had acquired. Sanskrit and geology were his favourite studies. He was an omnivorous reader and lover of books, and bequeathed his valuable library and collection of manuscripts to the Norfolk and Norwich Library. ”

“ In the Charles Eliot Norton number of the “Harvard Graduates’ Magazine” commemorating his eightieth birthday, Professor Palmer, with that singular felicity which characterizes him, says of Norton: “He has been an epitome of the world’s best thought brought to our own doors and opened for our daily use.” Edith [134] Wharton with equal felicity writes from Norton’s well-known dwelling at Ashfield, whose very name, “High Pasture,” gives a signal for what follows:—
“Come up—come up ”

“ A WELSH INVITATION.
Mr. Walter Norton, Mrs. Walter Norton, and Miss Sandys' compliments to Mr. Charles Morgan, Mrs. Charles Morgan, Miss Charles Morgan, and the governess whose name Mr. Walter Norton, Mrs. Walter Norton, and Miss Sandys do not recollect, and Mr. Walter Norton, Mrs. Walter Norton, and Miss Sandys request the favour of the company of Mr. Charles Morgan, Mrs. Charles Morgan, and Miss Charles Morgan, and the governess whose name Mr. Walter Norton, Mrs. Walter Norton, and Miss Sandys do not recollect, to dinner on Monday week next. Mr. Walter Norton, Mrs. ”

“ NORTON, Sir JOHN (d. 1534) , soldier, was eldest son of Reginald Norton of Sheldwich, by Catherine, daughter of Richard Dryland. He was a brave and adventurous captain, and on 11 July 1511 sailed with Sir Edward Poynings and fifteen hundred men from Sandwich, going into the Low Countries to aid Margaret of Savoy against the Duke of Guelders. ”

“ One is enough; and I cannot help that; and I must."
"Must what?" said Norton. "Help them? You cannot, Pink. It is no use for you to try to lift all New York on your shoulders. It's no use to think about it."
"I am not going to try to lift all New York," said the little girl, making an effort to dry her eyes.
"And it is no good crying about it, you know."
"No, no good," said Matilda. "But I don't know, Norton; perhaps it is. If other people cried about it, the thing would get mended."
"Not so easy as lace work," said Norton, looking at the cobweb tracery tissue before him. ”

“ And the question is, what ought we to do for them?"
"You can't do much," said Norton. "You can make yourself poor, easy enough. Then you'll expect Judy and me to take care of you."
"Are you afraid of that, Norton?" said Matilda laughingly.
"No, Pink, I am not," said Norton; "but you and Davy are just in the way to get into trouble. There's no bottom to New York mud."
"Norton," said David, "will you grant that we ought to do in this matter as the word of God says?"
"It don't say we are to make fools of ourselves," Norton responded.
"Yes it does," said Matilda quickly. ”

“ According to Samuel Norton [q. v.] , Thomas Norton was a member of Edward IV's privy chamber, was employed by the king on several embassies, and shared his troubles with him when he fled to Burgundy. The old house in Bristol remained in the possession of the family till 1580, when Sir George Norton, grandson of Thomas the alchemist, sold it to the Newton family. The Nortons afterwards resided at Abbots Leigh in Somerset.
Norton probably studied alchemy under Sir George Ripley [q. v.] At the age of twenty-eight he visited Ripley, and entreated to be taught the art. ”

“ O Norton, I have found something else that wants money."
"Money! I dare say," said Norton. "Everything wants money. What is it, Pink? It isn't Lilac lane, anyhow."
"No, Norton; but worse."
"Go on," said Norton. "You needn't stop and look so.I can stand it. What is it?"
Matilda dropped her lace for the minute, and told her walk and visit of Sunday afternoon. As she told it, the tears gathered; and at the end she dropped her face upon her knees and sobbed. Norton did not know what to do.
"There's lots of such places," he said at last. "You needn't fret so. This isn't the only one." ”

“ NORTON, RICHARD (1488?–1588) , rebel, known in the time of the northern rebellion of 1569 as ‘Old Norton,’ is said to have been born in 1488. He was eldest son of John Norton of Norton Conyers, by his wife Anne, daughter of William or Miles Radclyffe of Rylleston. His grandfather, Sir John Norton of Norton Conyers, was grandson of Sir Richard Norton [q. v.] , chief justice of the common pleas. Richard Norton took part in the pilgrimage of grace, but was pardoned (cf. Memorials of the Rebellion, pp. 284–5) . In 1545 and in 1556 he was one of the council of the north. ”

“ I have related especially this one touching tale of friendship, because it was the climax of them all, and the best illustration of the essential Americanism of Norton’s career.
He indeed afforded a peculiar and almost unique instance in New England, not merely of a cultivated man who makes his home for life in the house where he was born, but of one who has recognized for life the peculiar associations of his boyhood and has found them still the best. ”

“ He lowered his voice to a tone of pathos, rolled his eyes upward, shook his hands up at the clear blue sky and said in a still more impressive silence, "I would that you could have seen that great king that governs us all, Karl the Second, whose name shall pass down through all ages, immortal, enshrined in the tender memories of men, as he stood with great pitiful eyes suffused with unshed tears and cried, 'The salvation of my people lies in that simple thing, the full dinner pail! And that this may come about there is but one way, that all men shall work, produce, develop, and do their share. ”

“ NORTON, THOMAS (1532—1584) , English lawyer, politician and writer of verse, was born in London in 1532. He was educated at Cambridge, and early became a secretary to the Protector Somerset. In 1555 he was admitted a student at the Inner Temple, and married Margery Cranmer, the daughter of the archbishop. From his eighteenth year Norton had begun to compose verse. ”

“ Now it was this Anglo wearing Spanish dress and standing in a dim stable, reining temper to meet the open hostility of the captain.
"Captain Bayliss." The words sounded as remote as if the [pg 045] speaker bestrode some peak of the Chiricahuas to address a pygmy in a canyon below. "I know of no law which states that I may not employ whom I choose on my own land. If a man does his job and makes no trouble, his past does not matter. I am as ready to fire a former Union soldier as I am a Confederate—"
"I tell you again: I'm not going to have Rebs around here passing on information to Kitchell!" ”

“ Norton asked.
"Not in your own name; not as though you were your own master; not as seeking first your own pleasure or advancement; not as using your own things. Correlatively, for the Lord; for His pleasure, for His service, as belonging to Him."
"'In word or deed,'" said Matilda. "That means giving and everything."
"But then, in religion one would never be free," said Norton.
"How, never be free?"
"Why, one must act as if one never be longed to one's self."
"We don't," said Mr. Richmond. "We are not our own; we are bought with a price. ”

“ Spring came, indeed, before the Loner called on Horn.
“Goin' to buy some young stuff to run and fatten,” he explained.
“John, you can have your money any time you want it,” said Horn, “but have you heard about this bunch of rustlers called the Birch Gang? Well, they're a bad lot. It's pretty generally known that they're running whole herds of stock off the range, but so far, no one has been able to prove it on them—that is, if anyone has, he's turned his toes up before he got a chance. ”

“ The immediate result of Norton's communication had been to send the judge up the street to the courthouse. He would show his client that he could be punctual and painstaking. He should have his abstract of title without delay; moreover, he had in mind a scholarly effort entirely worthy of himself. The dull facts should be illuminated with an occasional striking phrase. He considered that it would doubtless be of interest to Mr. Norton, in this connection, to know something, too, of mediaeval land tenure, ancient Roman and modern English. ”

“ Norton gave him a peculiar look, one of those looks which an adept in the ways of life, in its crooked paths and unprincipled impostures, not unfrequently bestows upon the poor aristocratic dolt whom he is plundering to his face. The look we speak of might be mistaken for surprise—it might be mistaken for pity—but it was meant for contempt.
“Of course,” said he, “you are too well versed in the ways of the world, my lord, and especially in those of the fair sex, to be imposed upon. If ever I met an individual who can read a man's thoughts by looking into his face, your lordship is the man. ”