Norris. At the name the
ex-butler grew diplomatic and the ex-lady's-maid
tender. He was the only person of the whole
featureless series who seemed to have accomplished
anything worth mention; and his achievements, poor dog,
seemed to have been confined to going to the devil and
leaving some regrets. He had been the image of the
Right Honourable Bailley, one of the lights of that dim
house, and a career of distinction had been predicted
of him in consequence, almost from the cradle. But
before he was out of long clothes the cloven foot began
to show; he proved to be no Carthew, developed a taste
for low pleasures and bad company, went birdnesting
with a stable-boy before he was eleven, and when he was
near twenty, and might have been expected to display at
least some rudiments of the family gravity, rambled the
country over with a knapsack, making sketches and
keeping company in wayside inns. He had no pride about
him, I was told; he would sit down with any man; and it
was somewhat woundingly implied that I was indebted to
this peculiarity for my own acquaintance with the hero.
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