Quite as full as they can hold; and all the time he is drifting further and further from the haven where he would be. Yet his fortune lies at his feet, if he will but stoop to pick it up. It lies in the hedges, and in the fields, and woods; it lies upon the hillside. He can see it red as gold, flashing with the splendid light of a million diamonds, if he will open his eyes. But the time is not yet. The firm of publishers declined, but in courteous and even flattering terms, to publish the work in question. The author at once made up his mind that the book was not "in their line," and sent the MS. to another firm. The second firm apparently declined the work; but in another month the author writes triumphantly that Messrs. ---- are going to publish it. Now nothing remains but to settle the price. "I cannot help," he says, "feeling this a moment of great triumph, after so much opposition from everyone. All my friends prophesied failure, and when I refused to desist from endeavouring, grew angry with me, and annoyed me as much as possible.... I will let you know as soon as we have agreed upon the price, and, of course, I shall have the pleasure of sending you some copies when it appears." Alas! he was mistaken. There was much more than the remuneration to be settled before the work was published; in fact, it never was published. The last letter of the packet has no other date than May 7. From internal evidence, however, it must have been written in the year 1873. "I have just had a great disappointment. After keeping the manuscript of my novel more than two months, Mr. ---- has written to decline it. It really does seem like Sisyphus--just as one has rolled the stone close to the top of the hill, down it goes again, and all one's work has to be done over again. For some time after I began literary work I did not care in the least about a failure, because I had a perpetual spring of hope that the next would be more fortunate. But now, after eight years of almost continual failure, it is very hard indeed to make a fresh effort, because there is no hope to sustain one's expectations. Still, although I have lost hope entirely, I am more than ever _determined_ to succeed, and shall never cease trying till I do.