One of the most conspicuous characteristics of our contemporary native fiction is an increasing tendency to subordinate plot or story to the bold and realistic portrayal of some of the types of Americ...

David poured half of his second cup of tea into his saucer to lower its temperature to the drinking point, and helped himself to a second cut of ham and a third egg. Whatever was on his mind to have k...

“Then the’ wa’n’t nothin’ the matter with him, after all,” commented Mrs. Bixbee in rather a disappointed tone. “The meanest thing top of the earth was the matter with him,” declared David, “but I did...

Master Jacky Carling was a very nice boy, but not at that time in his career the safest person to whom to entrust a missive in case its sure and speedy delivery were a matter of importance. But he pro...

They were leaning upon the rail at the stern of the ship, which was going with what little wind there was, and a following sea, with which, as it plunged down the long slopes of the waves, the vessel ...

John found his humane experiment pleasanter than he expected. Mr. Carling, as was to be anticipated, demurred a little at the coffee, and still more at the cigarette; but having his appetite for tobac...

John saw Miss Blake the next morning in the saloon among the passengers in line for the customs official. It was an easy conjecture that Mr. Carling’s nerves were not up to committing himself to a “de...

The day seemed very long. He ate his luncheon, having first paid a visit to Ann, who gave him an effusive welcome. Jeffrey waited, and during the meal they had some further talk, and among other thing...

This history will not concern itself to any extent with our friend’s career as a law clerk, though, as he promised himself, he took it seriously and laboriously while it lasted, notwithstanding that a...

It is not the purpose of this narrative to dwell minutely upon the events of the next few months. Truth to say, they were devoid of incidents of sufficient moment in themselves to warrant chronicle. W...

I think it should hardly be imputed to John as a fault or a shortcoming that he did not for a long time realize his father’s failing powers. True, as has been stated, he had noted some changes in appe...

When John came down the next morning his father, who was, as a rule, the most punctual of men, had not appeared. He opened the paper and sat down to wait. Ten minutes passed, fifteen, twenty. He rang ...

And so it came about that certain letters were written as mentioned in a previous chapter, and in the evening of a dripping day early in November John Lenox found himself, after a nine hours’ journey,...

The next morning at nine o’clock John presented himself at Mr. Harum’s banking office, which occupied the first floor of a brick building some twenty or twenty-five feet in width. Besides the entrance...

Whatever might have been John’s repugnance to making a confidant of the man whom he had known but for half an hour, he acknowledged to himself that the other’s curiosity was not only natural but prope...

When John went back to the office after the noonday intermission it was manifest that something had happened to Mr. Timson, and that the something was of a nature extremely gratifying to that worthy g...

Some weeks after John’s assumption of his duties in the office of David Harum, Banker, that gentleman sat reading his New York paper in the “wing settin’-room,” after tea, and Aunt Polly was occupied ...

It was the 23rd of December, and shortly after the closing hour. Peleg had departed and our friend had just locked the vault when David came into the office and around behind the counter. “Be you in a...

Considering John’s relations with David Harum, it was natural that he should wish to think as well of him as possible, and he had not (or thought he had not) allowed his mind to be influenced by the d...

Mrs. Cullom was sitting at one corner of the fire, and David drew a chair opposite to her. “Feelin’ all right now? whisky hain’t made ye liable to no disorderly conduct, has it?” he asked with a laugh...

The widow was looking at David with shining eyes and devouring his words. All the years of trouble and sorrow and privation were wiped out, and she was back in the days of her girlhood. Ah, yes! how w...

John walked to the front door with Mrs. Cullom, but she declined with such evident sincerity his offer to carry her bundle to the house that he let her out of the office and returned to the back room....

“Why, Mis’ Cullom, I’m real glad to see ye. Come right in,” said Mrs. Bixbee as she drew the widow into the “wing settin’ room,” and proceeded to relieve her of her wraps and her bundle. “Set right he...

David’s house stood about a hundred feet back from the street, facing the east. The main body of the house was of two stories (through which ran a deep bay in front), with mansard roof. On the south o...

The meal proceeded in silence for a few minutes. Mrs. Cullom had said but little, but John noticed that her diction was more conventional than in her talk with David and himself in the morning, and th...

Two or three days after Christmas John was sitting in his room in the evening when there came a knock at the door, and to his “Come in” there entered Mr. Harum, who was warmly welcomed and entreated t...

The two men sat for a while smoking in silence, John taking an occasional sip of his grog. Mr. Harum had swallowed his own liquor “raw,” as was the custom in Homeville and vicinity, following the pota...

“People don’t dress for dinner in Homeville, as a rule, then,” John said, smiling. “No,” said Mr. Harum, “when they dress fer breakfust that does ’em fer all three meals. I’ve wore them things two thr...

It must not be understood that the Harums, Larrabees, Robinsons, Elrights, and sundry who have thus far been mentioned, represented the only types in the prosperous and enterprising village of Homevil...

Although, as time went on and John had come to a better insight of the character of the eccentric person whom Dick had failed to fathom, his half-formed prejudices had fallen away, it must be admitted...

If John Lenox had kept a diary for the first year of his life in Homeville most of its pages would have been blank. The daily routine of the office (he had no assistant but the callow Hopkins) was mor...

The year that had passed had seemed a very long one to John, but as the months came and went he had in a measure adjusted himself to the change in his fortunes and environment; and so as time went on ...

Our friend’s acquaintance with the rector of St. James’s church had grown into something like friendship, and the two men were quite often together in the evening. John went sometimes to Mr. Euston’s ...

On a fine Sunday in summer after the close of the service the exit of the congregation of St. James’s church presents an animated and inspiring spectacle. A good many well-dressed ladies of various ag...

“Where you ben?” asked Mrs. Bixbee of her brother as the three sat at the one o’clock dinner. “I see you drivin’ off somewheres.” “Ben up the Lake Road to ’Lizer Howe’s,” replied David. “He’s got a ho...

After dinner John went to his room and David and his sister seated themselves on the “verandy.” Mr. Harum lighted a cigar and enjoyed his tobacco for a time in silence, while Mrs. Bixbee perused, with...

“Well,” said Miss Verjoos, when her sister overtook her, Mr. Euston having stopped at his own gate, “you and your latest discovery seemed to be getting on pretty well from the occasional sounds which ...

The Verjoos house, of old red brick, stands about a hundred feet back from the north side of the Lake Road, on the south shore of the lake. Since its original construction a porte-cochère has been bui...

David and John had been driving for some time in silence. The elder man was apparently musing upon something which had been suggested to his mind. The horses slackened their gait to a walk as they beg...

The road they were on was a favorite drive with the two men, and at the point where they had now arrived David always halted for a look back and down upon the scene below them⁠—to the south, beyond th...

John leaned out of the buggy and looked back along the road, as if deeply interested in observing something which had attracted his attention, and David’s face worked oddly for a moment. Turning south...

It was the latter part of John’s fifth winter in Homeville. The business of the office had largely increased. The new manufactories which had been established did their banking with Mr. Harum, and the...

The next morning David called John into the rear room. “Busy?” he asked. “No,” said John. “Nothing that can’t wait.” “Set down,” said Mr. Harum, drawing a chair to the fire. He looked up with his char...

The summer was drawing to a close. The season, so far as the social part of it was concerned, had been what John had grown accustomed to in previous years, and there were few changes in or among the p...

Since the whooping-cough and measles of childhood the junior partner of Harum & Company had never to his recollection had a day’s illness in his life, and he fought the attack which came upon him abou...

The Vaterland was advertised to sail at one o’clock, and it wanted but fifteen or twenty minutes of the hour. After assuring himself that his belongings were all together in his stateroom, John made h...

John had been late in applying for his passage, and in consequence, the ship being very full, had had to take what berth he could get, which happened to be in the second cabin. The occupants of these ...

How John Lenox tried to kill time during the following two months, and how time retaliated during the process, it is needless to set forth. It may not, however, be wholly irrelevant to note that his c...

A fortnight later Mr. Harum sat at his desk in the office of Harum & Co. There were a number of letters for him, but the one he opened first bore a foreign stamp, and was postmarked “Napoli.” That he ...

I might, in conclusion, tell how John’s further life in Homeville was of comparatively short duration; how David died of injuries received in a runaway accident; how John found himself the sole execut...