“When did you hear from him?”

“I received a letter this morning.”

“And you called to see me because he requested you to do so?”

“I had determined to come before his letter arrived.”

He noticed the incredulous smile that flitted across her face, and, after a moment’s pause, he continued: 

“I do not wish to discourage you, on the contrary, I sincerely desire to aid you, but Mill has analyzed the subject very ably in his ‘Political Economy,’ and declares that ’on any rational calculation of chances in the existing competition, no writer can hope to gain a living by books; and to do so by magazines and reviews becomes daily more difficult.’”

“Yes, sir, that passage is not encouraging; but I comfort myself with another from the same book:  ’In a national or universal point of view the labor of the savant or speculative thinker is as much a part of production, in the very narrowest sense, as that of the inventor of a practical art.  The electro-magnetic telegraph was the wonderful and most unexpected consequence of the experiments of Oersted, and the mathematical investigations of Ampere; and the modern art of navigation is an unforseen emanation from the purely speculative and apparently meekly curious inquiry, by the mathematicians of Alexandria, into the properties of three curves formed by the intersection of a plane surface and a cone.  No limit can be set to the importance, even in a purely productive and material point of view, of mere thought.’  Sir, the economic law which regulates the wages of mechanics should operate correspondingly in the realm of letters.”

“Your memory is remarkably accurate.”

“Not always, sir; but when I put it on its honor, and trust some special treasure to its guardianship, it rarely proves treacherous.”

“I think you can command better wages for your work in New York than anywhere else on this continent.  You have begun well; permit me to say to you be careful, do not write too rapidly, and do not despise adverse criticism.  If agreeable to you, I will call early next week and accompany you to the public libraries, which contain much that may interest you.  I will send you a note as soon as I acertain when I can command the requisite leisure; and should you need my services, I hope you will not hesitate to claim them.  Good-evening, Miss Earl.”

He bowed himself out of the library, and Edna went back to her own room, thinking of the brief interview, and confessing her disappointment in the conversation of this most dreaded of critics.

“He is polished as an icicle, and quite as cold.  He may be very accurate and astute and profound, but certainly he is not half so brilliant as—­”

She did not complete the parallel, but compressed her lips, took up her pen, and began to write.

On the following morning Mrs. Andrews came into the schoolroom, and, after kissing her children, turned blandly to the governess.