Summary

Upon receiving a package that includes one of William’s books with all the illustrations cut out, Eliza begins to suspect that the culprit behind the unpleasant mail William has been receiving is George Cruikshank, the man who formerly served as William’s illustrator. This theory is confirmed when Cruikshank pens a letter to a popular newspaper complaining about a reference to one of William’s more recent novels that makes no reference to the part Cruikshank played in helping to develop it. William is furious upon discovering this article, and brings it up to Eliza, who finds herself curiously eager to defend and sympathize with Cruikshank in spite of her long-standing distaste for him. William complains that Cruikshank did the same thing to Charles Dickens after he died, then accuses Eliza of only beginning to care about people as soon as it...