FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32  
33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   >>   >|  
viously, such a man could not but be observed and talked about. Endless stories, some of them more or less true, most of them apocryphal, were told of him--stories of his shrewd, unexpected moves in big cases, of his witty retorts, of his generosities, of his peculiarities of dress, of eating and drinking; stories of his adventures with women. Whatever he did, however trivial, took color and charm from his personality, so easy yet so difficult, so simple yet so complex, so baffling. Was he wholly selfish? Was he a friend to almost anybody or to nobody? Did he ever love? No one knew, not even himself, for life interested him too intensely and too incessantly to leave him time for self-analysis. One thing he was certain of; he hated nobody, envied nobody. He was too successful for that. He did as he pleased. And, on the whole, he pleased to do far less inconsiderately than his desires, his abilities, and his opportunities tempted. Have not men been acclaimed good for less? In the offices, where he was canvased daily by partners, clerks, everyone down to the cleaners whose labors he so often delayed, opinion varied from day to day. They worshiped him; they hated him. They loved him; they feared him. They regarded him as more than human, as less than human; but never as just human--though always as endowed with fine human virtues and even finer human weaknesses. Miss Tillotson, next to the head clerk in rank and pay--and a pretty and pushing young person--dreamed of getting acquainted with him--really well acquainted. It was a vain dream. For him, between up town and down town a great gulf was fixed. Also, he had no interest in or ammunition for sparrows. It was in December that Miss Hallowell--Miss Dorothea Hallowell--got her temporary place at ten dollars a week--that obscure event, somewhat like a field mouse taking quarters in a horizon-bounded grain field. It was not until mid-February that she, the palest of personalities, came into direct contact with Norman, about the most refulgent. This is how it happened. Late in that February afternoon, an hour or more after the last of the office force should have left, Norman threw open the door of his private office and glanced round at the rows on rows of desks. The lights in the big room were on, apparently only because he was still within. With an exclamation of disappointment he turned to re-enter his office. He heard the click of typewriter keys. Again he looked r
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32  
33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

office

 

stories

 

Norman

 

pleased

 

Hallowell

 

acquainted

 

February

 

sparrows

 
December
 
ammunition

interest

 
Dorothea
 

dollars

 

obscure

 

temporary

 
person
 

dreamed

 
looked
 

pushing

 

pretty


typewriter

 
disappointment
 

happened

 
afternoon
 

lights

 

refulgent

 
private
 

glanced

 

contact

 

quarters


horizon
 

bounded

 
taking
 

exclamation

 

apparently

 

direct

 

palest

 

personalities

 

turned

 

delayed


complex

 

simple

 
baffling
 
wholly
 

selfish

 

difficult

 

trivial

 

personality

 

friend

 

interested