miliar to every one.
The allusion to the comedy expresses a fancy he at this time had of
being able to contribute some such achievement in aid of Macready's
gallant efforts at Covent Garden to bring back to the stage its higher
associations of good literature and intellectual enjoyment. It connects
curiously now that unrealized hope with the exact title of the only
story he ever helped himself to dramatize, and which Mr. Fechter played
at the Adelphi three years before his death.

FOOTNOTES:

[11] Her epitaph, written by him, remains upon a gravestone in the
cemetery at Kensal Green: "Young, beautiful, and good, God numbered her
among his angels at the early age of seventeen."

[12] I have a memorandum in Dickens's writing that five hundred pounds
was to have been given for it, and an additional two hundred and fifty
pounds on its sale reaching three thousand copies; but I feel certain it
was surrendered on more favorable terms.

[13] The allusion was to the supposed author of a paper in the
_Quarterly Review_ (Oct. 1837), in the course of which there was much
high praise, but where the writer said at the close, "Indications are
not wanting that the particular vein of humor which has hitherto yielded
so much attractive metal is worked out. . . . The fact is, Mr. Dickens
writes too often and too fast. . . . If he persists much longer in this
course, it requires no gift of prophecy to foretell his fate:--he has
risen like a rocket, and he will come down like the stick."

CHAPTER VII.

BETWEEN PICKWICK AND NICKLEBY.

1837-1838.

Edits _Life of Grimaldi_--His Own Opinion of
it--An Objection answered--His Recollections of
1823--Completion of _Pickwick_--A Purpose long
entertained--Relations with Chapman &
Hall--Payments made for _Pickwick_--Agreement
for _Nicholas Nickleby_--_Oliver Twist_
characterized--Reasons for Acceptance with
every Class--Nightmare of an Agreement--Letter
to Mr. Bentley--Proposal as to _Barnaby
Rudge_--Result of it--Birth of Eldest
Daughter--_Young Gentlemen and Young
Couples_--First Number of _Nicholas
Nickleby_--2d of April, 1838.

NOT remotely bearing on the stage, nevertheless, was the employment on
which I found him busy at his return from Brighton; one result of his
more satisfactory relations with Mr. Bentley having led to a promise to
edit for him a life of the celebrat