was done well; and, for the rest, the
writer, who had yet to give the world "Martin Chuzzlewit," "The
Christmas Carol," "David Copperfield," and "Dombey," was not "coming
down like a stick." There were many more stars, and of very brilliant
colours, to be showered out by that rocket; and the stick has not even
yet fallen to the ground.[13]

Naturally, with the success of "Pickwick," came a great change in
Dickens' pecuniary position. He had, as we have seen, been glad
enough, before he began the book, to close with the offer of L14 for
each monthly part. That sum was afterwards increased to L15, and the
two first payments seem to have been made in advance for the purpose
of helping him to defray the expenses of his marriage. But as the sale
leapt up, the publishers themselves felt that such a rate of
remuneration was altogether insufficient, and sent him, first and
last, a goodly number of supplementary cheques, for sums amounting in
the aggregate, as _they_ computed, to L3,000, and as Forster computes
to about L2,500. This Dickens, who, to use his own words, "never
undervalued his own work," considered a very inadequate percentage on
their gains--forgetting a little, perhaps, that the risks had been
wholly theirs, and that he had been more than content with the
original bargain. Similarly he was soon utterly dissatisfied with his
arrangements with Bentley about the editorship of the _Miscellany_ and
"Oliver Twist,"--arrangements which had been entered into in August,
1836, while "Pickwick" was in progress; and he utterly refused to let
that publisher have "Gabriel Varden, The Locksmith of London"
("Barnaby Rudge") on the terms originally agreed upon. With Macrone
also, who had made some L4,000 by the "Sketches," and given him about
L400, he was no better pleased, especially when that enterprising
gentleman threatened a re-issue in monthly parts, and so compelled him
to re-purchase the copyright for L2,000. But however much he might
consider himself ill-treated by the publishing fraternity, he was, of
course, rapidly getting far richer than he had been, and so able to
enlarge his mode of life. He had begun, modestly enough, by taking his
wife to live with him in his bachelor's quarters in Furnival's
Inn,--much as Tommy Traddles, in "David Copperfield," took _his_ wife
to live in chambers at Gray's Inn; and there, in Furnival's Inn, his
first child, a boy, was born on the 6th of January, 1837. But in the
March of that