Mr. Norris

“ Flaubert said that a drop of water contained all the elements of the sea, save one—immensity. Mr. Norris is concerned only with serious things, he has only large ambitions. His brush is bold, his color is taken fresh from the kindly earth, his canvas is large enough to hold American life, the real life of the people. ”

“ Norris was too consciously influenced by his French masters. But “Blix” belongs to no school whatever, and there is not a shadow of pedantry or pride of craft in it from cover to cover. “Blix” herself is the method, the motives and the aim of the book. The story is an exhalation of youth and spring; it is the work of a man who breaks loose and forgets himself. Mr. Norris was married only last summer, and the march from “Lohengrin” is simply sticking out all over “Blix.” It is the story of a San Francisco newspaper man and a girl. ”

“ Dick cried. “If you couldn’t be born a Westerner, you are born again one. I am moved to tell you something that gave me a small glow yesterday. I met Lewis—the editor of the Star, you know, Madeline—and he insisted on stopping me and congratulating me on having brought Mr. Norris to St. Etienne; said he was irritated at first by having a man forced on him by influence, when there was really no particular place for him, but, he went on, ‘Mr. Norris is rapidly making his own place. We think him a real acquisition.’”
“Oh, pooh!” Norris lapsed sulkily into his usual quiet manner. ”

“ Mr. Norris took it.
"Why, bless my soul!" he exclaimed. "It is Henry Jennings, an old schoolmate of mine."
"And a good business man, even if he has sent out such a young drummer."
"I should say so. There must be something in you, or he wouldn't have trusted you. How is Jennings?"
"He is well, sir--well and prosperous."
"That is good news. Are you in his employ?"
"Yes, sir. This is the first time I have traveled for him."
"How far are you going?"
"As far as Chicago."
"I don't see what you can have to do with Rachel Norris. ”

“ Norris had to leave the Court when she got well, for the new people to come to it; she went straight to the house she's in now, which of right belongs to Miss Charlotte--I should say Mrs. St. John."
"I hope she's amiable?" observed the housekeeper.
"She is when she likes, I believe. I don't know much of her myself. She has a temper, they say--but then she has been so much indulged."
"She is very handsome. But she's not in the least like Mrs. Darling."
"She is very much like her father. Mrs. Darling's fair, Mr. Norris was----"
A clear, sonorous voice, calling "Benja," interrupted the words. ”

“ James’s Gazette.—‘Mr. Norris’s new story is one of his best. There is always about his novels an atmosphere of able authorship ...and The Widower is handled throughout in the perfect manner to which Mr. Norris’s readers are accustomed.’
Pall Mall Gazette.—‘There is distinction of all kinds in every paragraph, and the whole is worthy of the delicately-finished details. Mr. Norris is always delightfully witty, clever, and unfailing in delicacy and point of style and manner, breezily actual, and briskly passing along. ”

“ Norris looked surprised.
"What do you want of Rachel Norris?" he asked, abruptly.
"I have a little business with her," answered Carl.
"Of what nature?"
"Excuse me, but I don't care to mention it at present."
"Humph! you are very cautious for a young man, or rather boy."
"Isn't that a good trait, sir?"
"Good, but unusual. Are you a schoolboy?"
"No, sir; I am a drummer."
Mr. Norris put on a pair of glasses and scrutinized Carl more closely.
"I should like to see--just out of curiosity --the man that you travel for," he said.
"I will ask him to call whenever he visits Albany. There is his card." ”

“ If Osterman wants to play the goat, why should you help him out?”
“He's a PIP,” vociferated Annixter. “You don't understand, Presley. It runs in my family to hate anything sticky. It's—it's—it's heredity. How would you like to get into bed at two in the morning and jam your feet down into a slimy mess like that? Oh, no. It's not so funny then. And you mark my words, Mr. Harran Derrick,” he continued, as he climbed into the buggy, shaking the whip toward Harran, “this business we talked over to-night—I'm OUT of it. It's yellow. It's too CURSED dishonest.” ”

“ Norris.
"The ex-clusiveness, the pride, the form, the ceremony," exclaimed the General, emphasizing the article more vigorously at every repetition. "The artificial barriers set up between man and man; the division of the human race into court cards and plain cards, of every denomination, into clubs, diamonds, spades—anything but hearts!"
"Ah!" cried the whole family. "Too true, General!"
"But stay!" cried Mr. Norris the father, taking him by the arm. "Surely you crossed in the Screw, General?"
"Well! so I did," was the reply.
"Possible!" cried the young ladies. "Only think!" ”

“ Norris, who wanted to sell them, and Lady Ralph Morshampton, who wished to destroy them. Putting aside the question that the murder was really far too gruesome and horrible for any woman of refinement to have committed, it soon became an established fact that the two ladies were actually together at 196, Hamilton Terrace at the time that the murder was being perpetrated. You remember that the people in the flat below the one occupied by Mr. Norris heard the noise and scuffle at half-past ten. There then loomed before me the question of Lord Morshampton, the husband. ”

“ Dick answered hastily, and with an evident desire to push the topic no further. “And this, Mr. Early, is my old chum, Norris, who has come West to be on the editorial staff of the Star.”
“The Star? It is the symbol of illumination.27 Is then your Star devoted to the enlightenment of mankind?” asked Ram Juna, transferring his fixed gaze.
“In a sense—yes,” Norris faltered with a swift guilty recollection of certain head-lines in last night’s edition.
“He who writes must think. He who thinks goes below the surface. ”

“ Norris himself could say offhand what its number is. Sara and her circle are eminently characteristic of their creator. You have here the same well-bred well-to-do persons, pleasantly true to their decorous type, retaining always, despite modernity of clothes and circumstance, a gentle aroma of late Victorianism. Perhaps Sara is the most immediate of Mr.Norris's heroines so far. Her money-bags had been filled in Manchester, and from time to time in her history you are reminded of this circumstance. It explains much ”

“ Norris found himself possessed of plots sufficient for a number of agreeable short stories, but that, knowing short stories to be more or less a drug in the market, he very skilfully united them into one by the simple process of making all their characters friends of Barbara. Nothing could be more effective. For example, Mr. Norris thinks what fun it would be to describe a race ridden by two unwilling suitors, the prize to be the lady's heart, which neither in the least wishes to win. ”

“ I shall pay him to whom you send me for his trouble, and you for putting me in touch with him."
"It's an irregular thing to do," remarked Mr. Slater, "but I see no harm."
Mr. Slater rang a bell and asked for Mr. Norris.
"Norris," said Mr. Slater, "this party wants to be put next to London Bill—wants to be made solid with Bill. That's as far as you go."
"All right," said Mr. Norris. Then addressing Storri: "If you come now, I think I can locate your man in fifteen minutes."
Storri and Mr. Norris drove to a doggery near the East River, in the vicinity of James Slip. ”

“ He may be still, for aught I know."
"He is. I met him twice at Alnwick Hall when I went down to the funerals; George St. John's and poor Benja's. Isaac was too ill to go each time, and I had to represent him. Do you"--he paused a moment in hesitation, and then went on--"think it likely that Mr. Norris died insane? I am sure there is no insanity on Mrs. Darling's side."
"I have no reason for thinking so," replied the dean. "I was in want of a servant at the time, and a man who had lived with Mr. Norris applied to me for the situation. It was the surgeon, Pym, who spoke to his character: Mrs. ”

“ Well!"
"Yes, I know," answered Laura, shaking her head. "It takes my breath away sometimes. Mr. Jadwin tells me there's an art gallery, too, with an organ in it—a full-sized church organ. Think of it. Isn't it beautiful, beautiful? Isn't it a happiness? And I'll have my own carriage and coupe, and oh, Aunt Wess', a saddle horse if I want to, and a box at the opera, and a country place—that is to be bought day after to-morrow. It's at Geneva Lake. We're to go there after we are married, and Mr. Jadwin has bought the dearest, loveliest, daintiest little steam yacht. ”

“ He's got another fight in him. You'll see."
"Ever see him?"
"No, no, he don't come into the Pit—these big men never do."
Directly in front of Page two women kept up an interminable discourse.
"Well," said the one, "that's all very well, but Mr. Jadwin made my sister-in-law—she lives in Dubuque, you know—a rich woman. She bought some wheat, just for fun, you know, a long time ago, and held on till Mr. Jadwin put the price up to four times what she paid for it. Then she sold out. ”

“ Court, 'Landry'? I remember he always impressed me as though he had just had his hair cut; and the Cresslers, and Mrs. Wessels, and—"
"All well. Mrs. Cressler will be delighted to hear you are back. Yes, everybody is well."
"And, last of all, Mrs. Jadwin? But I needn't ask; I can see how well and happy you are."
"And Mr. Corthell," she queried, "is also well and happy?"
"Mr. Corthell," he responded, "is very well, and—tolerably—happy, thank you. One has lost a few illusions, but has managed to keep enough to grow old on. One's latter days are provided for." ”

“ We had to wait while they let three tows through. I think two at a time is as much as is legal. And we had to wait for three. Yes, sir; three, think of that! I shall look into that to-morrow. Yes, sir; don't you be afraid of that. I'll look into it." He nodded his head with profound seriousness.
"Well," announced Mr. Cressler, marshalling the party, "shall we go in? I'm afraid, Laura, we've missed the overture."
Smiling, she shrugged her shoulders, while they moved to the wicket, as if to say that it could not be helped now. ”

“ He touched his call bell.
"Kinzie," he said to the clerk who answered it, "after the close of the market to-day send delivery slips for a million and a half wheat to Mr. Scannel. His account with us has been settled."
Jadwin turned to the old man, reaching out the second check to him.
"Here you are, Hargus. Put it away carefully. You see what it is, don't you? Buy your Lizzie a little gold watch with a hundred of it, and tell her it's from Curtis Jadwin, with his compliments.... What, going, Scannel? Well, good-by to you, sir, and hey!" ”

“ Why, he threw his knife at Mac one time, and another time he bit him, actually bit him with his teeth, while they were wrestling just for fun. Marcus would do anything to injure Mac.”
“Dear, dear,” returned Old Grannis, genuinely pained. “I had always believed Schouler to be such a good fellow.”
“That's because you're so good yourself, Mr. Grannis,” responded Trina.
“I tell you what, Doc,” declared Heise the harness-maker, shaking his finger impressively at the dentist, “you must fight it; you must appeal to the courts; you've been practising too long to be debarred now. ”

“ The two masters had at first looked at Frank with incredulous surprise, but as the narrative continued and the proofs appeared to accumulate, the expression changed, and they regarded him with horror, not unmixed with pity. For a minute there was silence, then Mr. Richards said:—
"Strong as the proofs seem to be, sir, I can hardly believe in the possibility of Norris having behaved in this way. He has always been a particularly straightforward, honest, and honourable lad; there is not a boy in the house of whom I would so absolutely have disbelieved this tale. ”

“ “If I were to name the one crying evil of American life, Mr. Derrick,” he continued, “it would be the indifference of the better people to public affairs. It is so in all our great centres. There are other great trusts, God knows, in the United States besides our own dear P. and S. W. Railroad. Every State has its own grievance. If it is not a railroad trust, it is a sugar trust, or an oil trust, or an industrial trust, that exploits the People, BECAUSE THE PEOPLE ALLOW IT. The indifference of the People is the opportunity of the despot. ”

“ A King Charles spaniel, dragging a leading-string in the shape of a huge pink sash, followed the girl. Seven scarlet roses were scattered upon the two lowest steps, and eight floated in the water.
"Ain't that pretty, Mac?" exclaimed Trina, turning to the dentist.
"Ma, ain't they go-wun to begin now-wow?" whined Owgooste. Suddenly the lights all over the house blazed up. "Ah!" said everybody all at once.
"Ain't ut crowdut?" murmured Mr. Sieppe. Every seat was taken; many were even standing up.
"I always like it better when there is a crowd," said Trina. She was in great spirits that evening. ”

“ Both of them were exposed to the same conditions when their expedition went to pieces and they were taken off by the whaling ships—bad water, weakened constitution, not much power of resistance; in prime condition for the bacillus, and the same cause might have produced the same effect; at any rate, he's in a bad way."
"Is he—very bad?" asked Lloyd.
"Well, he's not the hang-on sort that Mr. Ferriss was; nothing undecided about Captain Ward Bennett; when he's sick, he's sick; rushes right at it like a blind bull. He's as bad now as Mr. Ferriss was in his third week." ”