or of such pages that he hadn't the
common means to marry. I had taken the field in a great glow to repair
this scandal, and it was therefore quite directly my fault if three
months later, when _The Major Key_ began to run, Mrs. Stannace was
driven to the wall. She had made a condition of a fixed income; and at
last a fixed income was achieved.

She had to recognise it, and after much prostration among the
photographs she recognised it to the extent of accepting some of the
convenience of it in the form of a project for a common household, to
the expenses of which each party should proportionately contribute.
Jane Highmore made a great point of her not being left alone, but Mrs.
Stannace herself determined the proportion, which on Limbert's side at
least and in spite of many other fluctuations was never altered. His
income had been "fixed" with a vengeance: having painfully stooped to
the comprehension of it Mrs. Stannace rested on this effort to the end
and asked no further question on the subject. _The Major Key_ in other
words ran ever so long, and before it was half out Limbert and Maud had
been married and the common household set up. These first months were
probably the happiest in the family annals, with wedding-bells and
budding laurels, the quiet, assured course of the book and the friendly,
familiar note, round the corner, of Mrs. Highmore's big guns. They gave
Ralph time to block in another picture as well as to let me know after
a while that he had the happy prospect of becoming a father. We had
at times some dispute as to whether _The Major Key_ was making an
impression, but our contention could only be futile so long as we were
not agreed as to what an impression consisted of. Several persons wrote
to the author and several others asked to be introduced to him: wasn't
that an impression? One of the lively "weeklies," snapping at the deadly
"monthlies," said the whole thing was "grossly inartistic"--wasn't
that? It was somewhere else proclaimed "a wonderfully subtle
character-study"--wasn't that too? The strongest effect doubtless was
produced on the publisher when, in its lemon-coloured volumes, like
a little dish of three custards, the book was at last served cold: he
never got his money back and so far as I know has never got it back to
this day. _The Major Key_ was rather a great performance than a great
success. It converted readers into friends and friends into lovers; it
placed the author, as the phr