“Know then, my Christopher,” he says, “that from boyhood’s hour I have unremittingly and unavailingly endeavoured to get into print.  Know, Christopher, that all the Booksellers alive—­and several dead—­have refused to put me into print.  Know, Christopher, that I have written unprinted Reams.  But they shall be read to you, my friend and brother.  You sometimes have a holiday?”

Seeing the great danger I was in, I had the presence of mind to answer, “Never!” To make it more final, I added, “Never!  Not from the cradle to the grave.”

“Well,” says he, thinking no more about that, and chuckling at his proofs again.  “But I am in print!  The first flight of ambition emanating from my father’s lowly cot is realised at length!  The golden bow”—­he was getting on,—­“struck by the magic hand, has emitted a complete and perfect sound!  When did this happen, my Christopher?”

“Which happen, sir?”

“This,” he held it out at arms length to admire it,—­“this Per-rint.”

When I had given him my detailed account of it, he grasped me by the hand again, and said: 

“Dear Christopher, it should be gratifying to you to know that you are an instrument in the hands of Destiny.  Because you are.”

A passing Something of a melancholy cast put it into my head to shake it, and to say, “Perhaps we all are.”

“I don’t mean that,” he answered; “I don’t take that wide range; I confine myself to the special case.  Observe me well, my Christopher!  Hopeless of getting rid, through any effort of my own, of any of the manuscripts among my Luggage,—­all of which, send them where I would, were always coming back to me,—­it is now some seven years since I left that Luggage here, on the desperate chance, either that the too, too faithful manuscripts would come back to me no more, or that some one less accursed than I might give them to the world.  You follow me, my Christopher?”

“Pretty well, sir.”  I followed him so far as to judge that he had a weak head, and that the Orange, the Boiling, and Old Brown combined was beginning to tell. (The Old Brown, being heady, is best adapted to seasoned cases.)

“Years elapsed, and those compositions slumbered in dust.  At length, Destiny, choosing her agent from all mankind, sent You here, Christopher, and lo! the Casket was burst asunder, and the Giant was free!”

He made hay of his hair after he said this, and he stood a-tiptoe.

“But,” he reminded himself in a state of excitement, “we must sit up all night, my Christopher.  I must correct these Proofs for the press.  Fill all the inkstands, and bring me several new pens.”