An allowance of three
hundred pounds in the year was to be paid to him
quarterly by a lawyer in Sydney, New South Wales. He
was not to write. Should he fail on any quarter-day to
be in Sydney, he was to be held for dead, and the
allowance tacitly withdrawn. Should he return to
Europe, an advertisement publicly disowning him was to
appear in every paper of repute.
It was one of his most annoying features as a son that
he was always polite, always just, and in whatever
whirlwind of domestic anger always calm. He expected
trouble; when trouble came he was unmoved; he might
have said with Singleton, "I TOLD YOU SO": he was
content with thinking, "JUST AS I EXPECTED." On the
fall of these last thunderbolts he bore himself like a
person only distantly interested in the event, pocketed
the money and the reproaches, obeyed orders punctually;
took ship and came to Sydney. Some men are still lads
at twenty-five; and so it was with Norris. Eighteen
days after he landed his quarter's allowance was all
gone, and with the light-hearted hopefulness of
strangers in what is called a new country he began to
besiege offices and apply for all manner of incongruous
situations.
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