'He is utterly cast down. He sits at home and broods. Sometimes he swears that he will tear up the thing and throw it into the fire; sometimes he recovers a little of his old confidence in it. He will not eat anything, and he does not sleep; and I can find nothing to say that will comfort him. If I knew anyone who would give him another opinion--the play cannot be so bad. Armorel, will you read the play?' 'But, my dear, I am no critic. What would be the good of my reading it?' 'I would rather have your criticism than'--she hesitated--'than anybody's. Because you can feel--and you have the artist's soul; and everybody has not----though he may paint such beautiful pictures,' she added rather obscurely. 'Well, I will read the play, or hear him read it, if you think it will do him any good, Effie. I will go with you at once.' 'Oh! will you, really? Archie will be shy at first. The last criticism caused him so much agony that he dreads another. But yours will be sympathetic, at least. You will understand what he meant, even if he has not succeeded--poor boy!--in putting on the stage what was in his heart. When he sees that you do feel for him, it will be different. Oh! Armorel!'--the tears rose to her eyes--'you cannot know what that play has been to both of us. We have talked over every situation: we have rehearsed all the dialogue. I know it by heart, I think. I could recite the whole of it, straight through. We have cried over it, and laughed over it. I have dressed dolls for all the parts, and one of us made them act while the other read the play. And, after all, to be told that it is worthless! Oh! It is a shame! It is a shame! And it isn't worthless. It is a great, a beautiful play. It is full of tenderness, and of strength as well.' 'Let us go at once, Effie.' 'What a good thing it was for me that the Head of the Reading Room sent me to you! I little thought I was going to make such a friend'--she took Armorel's hand--'We had no friends--yes, there was one, but he is no true friend. We have had no friends at all, and we thought to make our way without any.' 'You came to London to conquer the world--such a great giant of a world--you and your brother, Jack the Giant Killer.' 'Ah! But we had read, somewhere, that the world is a good-natured giant. He only asks to be amused. If you make him laugh or cry, and forget, somehow, his own troubles--the world is full of troubles--he will give in at once. Archie was going to make him laugh and cry; I was going to tickle him with pretty rhymes. But you may play for him, act for him, dance for him, paint for him, sing for him, make stories for him--anything that you will, and he will be subdued. That is what we read, and we kept on repeating this assurance to each other, but as yet we have not got very far. The great difficulty seems to make him look at you and listen to you.' 'My dear, you shall succeed.' * * * * *