arefully over the whole, writing in a line here and there
to make things smooth and pleasant, and artfully acknowledging the
quotations in an incidental manner. The result was a surprisingly
interesting and suggestive work, and when I had copied it all out in a
fair, clerkly hand, I found no difficulty in disposing of it, to good
advantage, to a publisher of repute. The book caught on immensely.
I became for one dazzling season a second-rate lion of the first
magnitude. I was pointed out by literary celebrities whom nobody
knew, to social recruits who knew nobody. I figured prominently in
the Saloons of the Mutual-exploitation Societies, and when my name
appeared in the minor Society papers among those present at Mrs. OPHIR
CROWDY'S reception, I felt what it was to be famous--and to remain
unspoiled.

A word of advice to those who will act upon my suggestions. Pitch your
story in the calm domestic key, upon which the depths and obscurities
of essayists, philosophers and divines, will come with pleasing
incongruity. Thus:--

CHAPTER I.

"An English Summer day; old _Ponto_ has been lying in the shade of the
great elm at the Rectory Gate, too lazy to make even a vigorous snap
at the flies, who are circling with mazy persistency round his great,
good-humoured head. At the sound of wheels coming along the road, he
pricks up his ears, and moves aside just in time to avoid being run
over by the chaise from the Hall." Then the rattle of teacups, and
the merry voices of tennis-players are interrupted by the barking of
_Ponto_, and the incident of the tramp, lectured by the Rector, and
relieved by LIONEL, the philanthropic Atheist.

"'I love the Human, I resent the Divine!' said LIONEL, carefully
shutting his purse.

"'Why, really,' began the Rector, 'I don't know what I have done to
incur your resentment.'

"'Pardon me, Sir,' said LIONEL, grimly. 'I am speaking of the Divine
with a big _D_.'

"'We never use a big, big _D_,' laughed NETTIE, gaily shaking her
curls.

"'Hush!' said MABEL, raising a warning finger at her little
rattle-brain."

After this sally you may give two or three pages of discussion,
letting the Rector have a good show with some of the Fathers, while
NETTIE and LIONEL reconstruct things, human and divine, in the
gloaming. You may carry your party to town in the season, and
tantalise your frivolous readers by taking them just up to the
Duchess's door. "Here LIONEL and Mr. CRUMPETTER left the ladie