ers which he wished
to re-write. He was always going to re-write these chapters, but never
did, and the work remains still in the columns of _Once a Week_, where
it may be hunted out by those who are curious. One day, when he was
lamenting the haste with which he had been compelled to send off a
certain instalment, he told me that he had an idea of another novel,
which seemed to him not only possible, but hopeful. He proposed that we
should take up this idea together, work it out, if it approved itself to
me as it did to him, and write a novel upon it together.

His idea, in the first crude form, was simple--so simple that I wonder
it had never occurred to anybody before. The prodigal son was to come
home again--apparently repentant--really with the single intention of
feigning repentance and getting what he could out of the old man and
then going back to his old companions. That was the first germ.

When we came to hammer this out together, a great many modifications
became necessary. The profligate, stained with vice, the companion of
scoundrels, his conscience hardened and battered and reckless, had yet
left, hitherto undiscovered, some human weakness. By this weakness he
had to be led back to the better life. Perhaps you have read the story,
dear reader. One may say without boasting that it attracted some
attention from the outset I even believe that it gave an upward turn--a
last gasp--to the circulation of the dying paper.

When--to anticipate a little--the time came for publishing it, we were
faced with the fact that a new and anonymous novel is naturally regarded
with doubt by publishers. Nothing seems more risky than such a venture.
On the other hand, we were perfectly satisfied that there was no risk in
our novel at all. This, of course, we had found out, not only from the
assurances of Vanity, but also from the reception the work had met with
during its progress through the magazine. Therefore, we had it printed
and bound at our own expense, and we placed the book, ready for
publication, in the hands of Mr. William Tinsley. We so arranged the
business that the printer's bill was not due till the first returns came
from the publisher. By this artful plan we avoided paying anything at
all. We had only printed a modest edition of 600, and these all went
off, leaving, of course, a very encouraging margin. The cheap edition
was sold to Henry S. King & Co. for a period of five years. Then the
novel was purchased