"This is no doubt very clever, but if you put all you have told us into your article, you'll certainly have the paper turned off the book-stalls."
The conversation paused. Every one finished his brandy-and-soda, and the correction of proofs was continued in silence, interrupted only by an occasional oath or a word of remonstrance from Frank, who begged Drake, a huge-shouldered man, whose hand was never out of the cigarette-box, not to drop the lighted ends on the carpet. Mike was reading Harding's article.
"I think we shall have a good number this week," said Mike. "But we want a piece of verse. I wonder if you could get something from John Norton. What do you think of Norton, Harding?"
"He is one of the most interesting men I know. His pessimism, his Catholicism, his yearning for ritual, his very genuine hatred of women, it all fascinates me."
"What do you think of that poem he told us of the other night?"
"Intensely interesting; but he will never be able to complete it. A man may be full of talent and yet be nothing of an artist; a man may be far less clever than Norton, and with a subtler artistic sense. If a seal had really something to say, I believe it would find a way of saying it; but has John Norton really got any idea so overwhelmingly new and personal that it would force a way of utterance where none existed? The Christian creed with its tale of Mary must be of all creeds most antipathetic to his natural instincts, he nevertheless accepts it…. If you agitate a pool from different sides you must stir up mud, and this is what occurs in Norton's brain; it is agitated equally from different sides, and the result is mud."
Mike looked at Harding inquiringly, for a moment wondered if the novelist understood him as he seemed to understand Norton.
A knock was heard, and Norton entered. His popularity was visible in the pleasant smiles and words which greeted him.
"You are just the man we want," cried Frank. "We want to publish one of your poems in the paper this week."
"I have burnt my poems," he answered, with something more of sacerdotal tone and gesture than usual.