one it troubled most was Daisy, on whose sweet
young face the share she had in her parent's griefs had already begun to
leave its impressions.

Millicent's novel was soon placed in Mr. Gouger's hands, completed. The
original theme was unaltered, but in its new garb of perfect English no
one would have recognized the rejected work. The combination of the
girl's strength of mind and the man's elegance of diction was
successful. The critic recommended its acceptance without a word of
dissent, and Cutt & Slashem even consented, on his suggestion, to
forego the guarantee against loss which they had of late demanded from
all authors whose names were unknown to the reading public.

"I have fixed it for you, Archie," he said, when that gentleman next
made his appearance at the sanctum. "No deposit or guarantee, and ten
per cent. of the retail price for royalty. So take a train to your
inamorata's house and tell her the news."

Mr. Weil did not seem to wholly relish the announcement.

"In the first place," he remarked, "you have no business to speak of
Miss Fern as my inamorata; and in the second you will pay her more than
ten per cent. or you won't get the book to print."

At this, Mr. Gouger, after the manner of all publishers and their
agents, proceeded to show to Mr. Weil that it was perfectly impossible
to pay another cent more than the figure he had named; and before he had
finished he agreed to see the firm and get the amount raised
considerably, provided the sales should exceed five thousand copies. In
short, Mr. Weil secured a very respectable contract for a new author,
and one that was sure to please Miss Fern, if she was in the least
degree reasonable.

"I wish you would hurry up Roseleaf," remarked Gouger, when this matter
was disposed of. "When will you take him down into the depths and let
him see that side of life?"

"I have arranged a journey for to-morrow night," said Weil. "We shall go
to Isaac Leveson's and make an evening of it. Unless things are
different there from usual, he will lay the foundation for all the
wickedness he needs to put into his story."

The critic nodded approval.

"He will probably have a Jew in it, then--a modernized Fagan."

"Yes," said Weil. "And a negro. A tall, well-built negro, who has a
white man for his slave!"

CHAPTER XII.

DINING AT ISAAC'S.

On the following day, when Shirley Roseleaf presented himself at the
Hoffman House, he found Mr. Weil awaiting