to exile him again to the apple-tree, even if the ground
should ever be dry enough. There was no hope that he would be left at
his home; there was no hope that he would get better, and go off to
attend to his own business; there was no hope that he would die.

From dictating but little I fell to dictating almost nothing at all. To
keep my secretary at work, I gave her some notes of travel of which to
make a fair copy, while I occupied myself in wondering what I was going
to do about that malarial husband.

At last I ceased to wonder, and I did something. I went to the city,
and, after a day's hard work, I secured a position for my secretary in a
large publishing establishment, where her husband could sit by a window
in a secluded corner, and keep as quiet as a mouse. The good lady
overwhelmed me with thanks for my kindness. She had begun to fear that,
as the season grew colder, the daily trip would not suit her husband,
and she gave me credit for having thought the same thing.

My grandmother and Walkirk were greatly concerned, as well as surprised,
at what I had done. The former said that, if I attempted to write my
book with my own hand, she feared the sedentary work would tell upon my
health; and my under-study, while regretting very much that his efforts
to provide me with an amanuensis had proved unsuccessful, showed very
plainly, although he did not say so, that he hoped I had found that
authorship was an annoying and unprofitable business, and that I would
now devote myself to pursuits which were more congenial, and in which he
could act for me when occasion required.

IX.

WALKIRK'S IDEA.

Walkirk very soon discovered that I had no intention whatever of giving
up the writing of my book, and I quieted the fears of my grandmother, in
regard to my health, by assuring her that the sedentary work connected
with the production of my volume would not be done by me. Secretaries
could be had, and I would get one.

This determination greatly disturbed Walkirk. He did not wish to see me
perform a service for myself which it was his business to perform for
me, and in which he had failed. I know that he gave the matter the most
earnest consideration, and two days after my late secretary and her
husband had left me he came into my study, his face shining with a new
idea.

"Mr. Vanderley," said he, "to find you an amanuensis who will exactly
suit you, and who will be willing to come here into the country to w