Their polite note informed me that their readers had read the work and thought very highly of it, that they were inclined--just by the way of completing their list for the approaching September, the best month in the year for bringing out novels--to bring it out, although I was, as yet, unknown to fame. Then came the first hint of 'the consideration,' which took the form of a hundred pounds, to be paid down in three sums, all to fall due before the day of publication. I worked out the profits which _could_ accrue if the entire edition sold out I found that, in that case, I should have a nice little sum for myself of 180_l._ Now, no struggling young author in his or her senses is silly enough to throw away the chance of making 180_l._ in one lump. I thought, and I thought the whole scheme out, and I must confess that the more I thought about it, the more utterly tempting did the offer seem. To risk 100_l._--and to make 180_l._! Why, it was a positive sin to lose such a chance. Therefore, I scraped a hundred pounds together, and, with my mother, set off for London, feeling that, at last, I was going to conquer the world. We did a theatre on the strength of my coming good fortune, and the morning after our arrival in town set off--in my case, at all events--with swelling hearts, to keep the appointment with the kindly publisher who was going to put me in the way of making fame and fortune. [Illustration: 'THE FIRM' CONSIDERING] I opened the door and went in. 'Is Mr.---- at home?' I asked. I was forthwith conducted to an inner sanctum, where I was received by the head of the firm himself. Then I experienced my first shock--he squinted! Now, I never could endure a man with a squint, and I distrusted this man instantly. You know, there are squints and squints! There is the soft uncertain squint feminine, which is really charming. And there is a particular obliquity of vision which, in a man, rather gives a larky expression, and so makes you feel that there is nothing prim and formal about him, and seems to put you on good terms at once. [Illustration: HE SQUINTED!] And there is a cold-blooded squint, which makes your flesh creep, and which, when taken in connection with business, brings little stories to your mind--'Is anyone coming, sister Anne?' and that sort of thing. Mr.---- asked me to excuse him a moment while he gave some instructions, and, without waiting for my permission, looked through a few letters, shouted a message down a speaking-tube, and then, after having arranged the fate of about half-a-dozen novels by the means of the same instrument, he sent a final message down the tube asking for my MS., only to be told that he would find it in the top right-hand drawer of his desk.