'My dear fellow, I will make
you editor at once.'"

* * * * *

So spake my celebrated friend. Of course, he is a cynic. He may be a
criminal cynic. But he spake so. From time to time London dailies do me
the honour to reprint saucy paragraphs from this weekly article of mine.
My friend said to me: "You can print what I've said, if you like. No daily
paper in London will reprint _that_."

MARGUERITE AUDOUX

[_2 March '11_]

Among the astonishing phenomena of a spring season which promises to be
quite as successful, in its way, as the very glorious autumn season
(publishers must have spent a happy Christmas!) is the success of a really
distinguished book. I mean "Marie Claire." Frankly, I did not anticipate
this triumph. For, of course, it is very difficult for an author of
experience to believe that a good book will be well received. However,
"Marie Claire" has been helped by a series of extraordinary reviews. No
novel of recent years has had such favourable reviews, or so many of them,
or such long ones. I have seen all of them--all except one have been very
laudatory--and I am in a position to state that if placed end to end they
would stretch from Miss Corelli's house in Stratford-on-Avon across the
main to Mr. Hall Caine's castle in the Isle of Man. This may be called
praise. One of the best, if not the best, was signed "J.L.G." in the
_Observer_. It is indeed a solemn and terrifying thought that Mr. Garvin,
who, by means of thoroughly bad prose persisted in during many years, has
at last laid the Tory Party in ruins, should be so excellent a judge of
literature. Mr. Garvin made his debut in the London Press, I think, as a
literary critic; and it is a pity (from the Tory point of view) that he
did not remain a literary critic. I am convinced that Mr. Balfour and Lord
Lansdowne would personally subscribe large sums to found a literary paper
for him to edit, on condition that he promised never to write another line
of advice to their party. The _Telegraph_ would bleed copiously; the
_Observer_ would expire; the _Fortnightly Review_ would stagger in its
heavy stride, but there would be hope for Tories!... In the meantime, five
thousand copies of the English translation of "Marie Claire" were sold
within a week of publication. It is improbable that the total English sale
will be less than ten thousand. Now translated novels rarely achieve
popularity. The last one to be popular