Harrington stared at the pencilled direction for a moment in silence. He remembered it--of course he remembered it!--it was the very address given to the driver of the taxi-cab in which the girl with whom he had travelled to London more than a year ago had gone, as it seemed, out of his sight. Every little incident connected with her came freshly back to his mind--how she had spoken of the books she loved in "old French" and "Elizabethan English"--and how she had said she knew the way to earn her own living. If this was the way--if she was indeed the author of the book which had stirred and wakened the drowsing soul of the age, then she had not ventured in vain! Aloud he said: "It seems to be another case of the 'Author of Waverley' and the 'Great Unknown'! I suppose you'll take anything else you can get by the same hand?" "Rather!" And the publisher nodded emphatically--"We have already secured a second work." "Through Miss Armitage?" "Yes. Through Miss Armitage." Harrington laughed. "I believe you're all blinder than bats!" he said--"Why on earth you should think that because a woman looks like a school-girl she cannot write a clever book if gifted that way, is a condition of non-intelligence I fail to fathom! You speak of this author as a 'he.' Do you think only a male creature can produce a work of genius? Look at the twaddle men turn out every day in the form of novels alone! Many of them are worse than the worst weak fiction by women. I tell you I've lived long enough to know that a woman's brain can beat a man's if she cares to test it, so long as she does not fall in love. When once that disaster happens it's all over with her! It's the one drawback to a woman's career; if she would only keep clear of love and self-sacrifice she'd do wonders! Men never allow love to interfere with so much as their own smoke--very few among them would sacrifice a good cigar for a woman! As for this girl, Miss Armitage, I'll pluck out the heart of her mystery for you! I suppose you won't pay any less for good work if it turns out to be by a 'she' instead of a 'he'?" The publisher was amused. "Certainly not!" he answered. "We have already paid over a thousand pounds in royalties on the present book, and we have agreed to give two thousand in advance on the next. The author has expressed himself as perfectly satisfied--" "Through Miss Armitage?" put in Harrington. "Yes. Through Miss Armitage." "Well!" And Harrington turned to go--"I hope Miss Armitage will also express herself as perfectly satisfied after I have seen her! I shall write and ask permission to call--" "Surely"--and the publisher looked distressed--"surely you do not intend to trouble this poor girl by questions concerning her employer? It's hardly fair to her!--and of course it's only your way of joking, but your idea that she wrote the book we're all talking about is simply absurd! She couldn't do it! When you see her, you'll understand."