New Grub Street

e his mother and Maud were busy with plain needlew

gnise them?' Mrs

m I know by sight at the British Museum. It wasn'

en Miss Harrow was here last, s

I hadn't remembered their faces. Both of them are ob

uch a fright th

such people. No, I rather like the look of her. Simpatica, I should think, as that ass Whelpdale would say. A very delic

ugh, where she would meet Dora on the latter's return from her teaching, and Mrs Milvain sat alone

of her life she had spent as a governess; her position now was more agreeable, and the removal of her anxiety about the future had developed qualities of cheerfulness which formerly no one would have

s came yesterday,'

d her son's encounte

come; I hardly expected she would, you know. So very unfo

ed confi

must feel it,'

he's a sweet girl, and I should so like you to meet her. Do come and have tea w

d then perhaps Miss Yule will be

have thought that perhaps it might be some advantage to him. A

'But - what of Jasper's friendship with Mrs Edmund Yu

much better if those estrangements came to an end. John makes no scruple of speaking freely about everyone, and I don't think Alfred re

sure I don't know where he is at this moment.

th you much lon

aps a

y were curious to see the young lady from the valley of the sh

cared little for female society. In Wattleborough and the neighbourhood opinions varied greatly as to this gentleman's character, but women seldom spoke very favourably of him. Miss Harrow was reticent concerning her brother-in-law; no one, however, had any reason to believe that she found life under his roof disagreeable. That sh

the fami

s father, endeavouring to add a bookselling department to the trade in stationery; but the life of home was not much to his taste, and at one-and-twenty he obtained a clerk's place in the office of a London newspaper. Three years after, his father died,

is brother Alfred, in the meantime, had drifted from work at a London bookseller's i

John offered him a share in his flourishing paper works; whereupon Edmund married, deeming himself well established for life. But John's temper was a di

ry; the experiment could not be called successfu

shed; he founded a public gymnasium; and finally he allowed it to be rumoured that he was going to present the town with a park. But by presuming too far upon the bodily vigour which prompted these activities, he passed of a sudden into the state of a confirmed invalid. On an autumn expedition in the Hebrides he slept one night under the open sky, with the result that he had an all but fatal attack of rheumatic fever. After that, though the direction of his interests was unchanged, he could no longer set the example to Wattleborough youth of muscular manli

were not on terms of amity with each other, owing to difficulties between Mrs Alfred and Mrs Edmund; but John seemed to regard both impartially. Perhaps the only real warmth of feeling he had ever known was bestowed upon Edmund, and Miss Harrow had remarked that he spoke with somewhat more interest of Edmund's daughte

ngly modern young man. In the shadow of a window-curtain sat a slight, simply-dressed girl, whose short curly hair and thoughtful countenance Jasper again recognised. When it was his turn to be presented to Miss Yule, he saw tha

e said in a friendly way, 'though without kno

adily understan

ery often,' w

' asked Miss Harr

own to some of us as the valley of the shadow of books. People w

e's father when I happened to p

had linked her fingers, and laid her hands, palms downwards, upon her lap - a nervous action. Her accent was pure, unpretentious; and sh

xist in this out-of-the-w

' Marian answered, w

ere equally marked upon his visage; his brows were knitted in a permanent expression of severity. He had thin, smooth hair, grizzled whiskers, a shaven chin. In the multitudinous wrinkles of his face lay a history

s bony hand. 'Your name reminds me of a paper in The Wayside a month or

you for noticing i

th upon his cheek. The allusion had come so

. He seemed to have nothing more to say at present, and allowed Miss Harrow and the girls to support conversation. Jaspe

es

rable review of a novel which was tremendousl

ould perceive at once that hi

on't s

's "On the Boards." How will

ible; but it'll be unpleasant for him, decidedly un

explained

for making a change. The paper has been going downhill for the last year; I know of two publishing houses who have withdrawn their advertising from it, and who never send their books for rev

a

irth and pleasure. His utterance of the name 'Mr Fadge' sufficiently intimat

ilvain, 'ought to make a

to the papers, calling attention to this

the ladies (his sisters had heard him on the subject already) with a description of the two antagonistic notices. But he did not trust himself to express s

Miss Harrow, presently. 'It seems a shame

on of the master of the house. B

me and have a word with him. He isn't qui

e that instead of coat he wore a dressing-gown. The facial likeness between him and his brother was very strong, but John's would universally have been judged the finer countenance; illness notwithstanding, he had a comp

bluff greeting, as he held a hand to the young man an

erary profession,' admitted Jasper, who had heard eno

m, too. Hang it, Mr Milvain, is there no les

, you know, you must be held in a m

's t

making of paper. If that article were not so cheap and so a

uttered a

u are corne

ed to write on such paper as I chiefly made; it was

a box of cigarettes on a table near him. His brother and

rary production come entire

e the business of li

t, on the whole, I should say that ev

purp

o spread ci

e stuff that's poured out daily by the ton from the printing-press? Just the men and women who ought to spend their leisure hours in open-air exercise; the people who earn their bread by sedentary pursuits, and who nee

I think, to counteract those

men and women engaged in sedentary work who take an oath to abstain from all reading, and keep it for a certain number of years. There's

hed with contemp

e military conscription introdu

o you know why it isn't even more successful? Because the damnable education movement interferes. If Germany would shut up her schools and universities for the next quarter of a century and go ahead like blazes with military training there'd be a nation such as the world has never seen. After that, they might begin

He was considering whether he could aid in bringing public contempt upon that literary

ed John, 'what do

e a salable page or two out o

g to say. You live by inducing people to give themselves

at all unlikely that I might make a good thing of writing against writing. It should be my literary specialty to rail a

ticipated you,'

way. I would base my polemi

whilst John regarded him as he migh

n who has married one of my nieces - poor lass! Reardon, his name is. You know him, I dare say. Just for curiosity I had a look at one of his books; it was called "The Opti

red Yule, who wore a

John. 'I'm not sure that it isn't my duty to offer him a co

nd in London, burst into laughter. But a

ladies?' he said, w

ner which often c

u're still young,' said John as

ly, I suppose?' Jasper remarked wh

ather tiresome when you hear it often. By-the-bye,

ow his name until

a certain pleasure when he gets into a scrape. I could tell you incredible stories a

ght sight of the pair, came towards them.

e,' said Miss Harrow to Alfred. 'You are neve

es he begged that the ladies would excuse his withdrawing; he had two

ally he addressed himself very often to Marian Yule, whose attention complimented him. She said little, and evidently was at no time a free talker, but the smile on her face indicated a mood of quiet enjoyment. When her eyes wandered, it was to rest on the beauties of t

o have tea with the Milvains. And when Jasper took leave of Alfred Yule, the la