lady-like
female, of about thirty, with a good-looking and intelligent countenance.
"What is your business, young man?" said she to me, after I had made her
a polite bow. "I wish to speak to the gentleman of the house," said I.
"My husband is not within at present," she replied; "what is your
business?" "I have merely brought something to show him," said I, "but I
will call again." "If you are the young gentleman who has been here
before," said the lady, "with poems and ballads, as, indeed, I know you
are," she added, smiling, "for I have seen you through the glass door, I
am afraid it will be useless; that is," she added with another smile, "if
you bring us nothing else." "I have not brought you poems and ballads
now," said I, "but something widely different; I saw your advertisement
for a tale or a novel, and have written something which I think will
suit; and here it is," I added, showing the roll of paper which I held in
my hand. "Well," said the bookseller's wife, "you may leave it, though I
cannot promise you much chance of its being accepted. My husband has
already had several offered to him; however, you may leave it; give it
me. Are you afraid to entrust it to me?" she demanded somewhat hastily,
observing that I hesitated. "Excuse me," said I, "but it is all I have
to depend upon in the world; I am chiefly apprehensive that it will not
be read." "On that point I can reassure you," said the good lady,
smiling, and there was now something sweet in her smile. "I give you my
word that it shall be read; come again to-morrow morning at eleven, when,
if not approved, it shall be returned to you."

I returned to my lodging, and forthwith betook myself to bed,
notwithstanding the earliness of the hour. I felt tolerably tranquil; I
had now cast my last stake, and was prepared to abide by the result.
Whatever that result might be, I could have nothing to reproach myself
with; I had strained all the energies which nature had given me in order
to rescue myself from the difficulties which surrounded me. I presently
sank into a sleep, which endured during the remainder of the day, and the
whole of the succeeding night. I awoke about nine on the morrow, and
spent my last threepence on a breakfast somewhat more luxurious than the
immediately preceding ones, for one penny of the sum was expended on the
purchase of milk.

At the appointed hour I repaired to the house of the bookseller; the
bookseller was in his sho