armchair. He sat up
as I came in, and regarded me with a confused stare. I saw he had been
drinking, but his brain was still tolerably clear.

"Rejected, by Jove!" he remarked as he saw the MS.

"No," I answered, throwing it on to a side table and myself into the
chair opposite him--"no, thank heaven, it's all right now! They've
accepted it. Congratulate me!"

"But what on earth have you brought it back for, then?" he said,
blinking his heavy eyes and looking at me resentfully, as if he
suspected I was playing some practical joke.

"Oh, there are a few things they want altered, that's all," I answered.
"I am to let them have it again the day after to-morrow."

"And what about terms?" he continued, getting out a roll of cigarette
papers and beginning to roll himself some cigarettes.

He was wide awake now, and had shaken off his intoxicated stupor. His
face was bent slightly as he made the cigarettes, so that I could
hardly see it. I sat watching his trembling fingers rolling the papers
in an absent silence.

"Oh, terms?" I said at last. "Fairly good, I think. They pay me a small
sum and reserve me one-third of all profits from the book. I really
don't care much about the terms. Once the book is out my name is made,
and the money will come in all right in time. They've taken it; that is
the main point. If you knew the glorious relief it is to me!"

Howard laughed. He flung himself back in the chair and propped his feet
up against the support of the mantelpiece.

"I think you are very lucky," he said. There was silence, then he asked
abruptly--"How much are they going to give you for it?"

"Three thousand francs."

Howard paled suddenly and fixed his eyes upon me.

"And what will you do with it?" he asked, after a minute.

"Well," I answered, without reflection, "I thought you would like two
thousand to send home and get rid of that half-yearly interest."

The blood dyed all his face suddenly crimson, and he brought down his
feet upon the fender with a crash.

"I wish to hell you'd wait till I asked you for it!" he said savagely,
springing up and crossing to the window.

There he stood looking out with his hands thrust deep into his pockets.
I was fairly startled, and the colour rose uncomfortably in my own face.

It seemed, I almost felt, as if I had done something excessively
ill-bred. But Howard and I were on such intimate terms, and made so
little account of what we said to each other, that I had e