The situation had become too much for Mark; at first he had hoped that by holding his tongue he might escape being detected, while the rejection of both the novels from which he had hoped so much was a heavy blow which he felt he could scarcely bear in public; but they seemed so determined to sift the matter to the end that he decided to enlighten them at once, since it must be only a question of time. But his voice was choked and his face crimson as he said, 'I think perhaps I can explain it.' 'You!' they all cried, while Uncle Solomon added something about 'young men having grown cleverer since his young days.' 'Yes, that letter is addressed to me--M. Ashburn, you see, stands for Mark, not Matthew. It's from--from a firm of publishers,' said the unlucky Mark, speaking very hoarsely; 'I sent them two novels of mine--one was called "One Fair Daughter," and the other "Sweet Bells Jangled"--and they, they won't take them--that's all.' There was a 'sensation,' as reporters say, at this announcement: Martha gave a sour little laugh of disgust; Cuthbert looked as if he thought a good deal which brotherly feeling forbade him to put in words; but Trixie tried to take Mark's hand under the table--he shrank from all sympathy, however, at such a moment, and shook her off impatiently, and all she could do was to keep her eyes in pity from his face. Mrs. Ashburn gave a tragic groan and shook her head: to her a young man who was capable of writing novels was lost; she had a wholesome horror of all fiction, having come from a race of Dissenters of the strict old-fashioned class, whose prejudices her hard dull nature had retained in all their strength. Her husband, without any very clear views of his own, thought as she did as soon as he knew her opinions, and they all left it to Mr. Lightowler to interpret the 'evident sense of the house.' He expanded himself imposingly, calling up his bitterest powers of satire to do justice to the occasion: 'So _that's_ all, is it?' he said; 'ah, and quite enough, too, _I_ should think; so it was the bells on _your_ cap that were jingling all the time?' 'Since you put it in that pleasant way,' said Mark, 'I suppose it was.' 'And that's how you've been studying for the Bar of evenings, this is the way you've overcome your fondness for scribbling nonsense? I've spent all the money I've laid out on you' (it was a way of his to talk as if Mark had been a building estate), 'I've given you a good education, all to 'ave you writing novels and get 'em "returned with thanks!"--you might have done that much without going to College!' 'Every writer of any note has had novels declined at some time,' said Mark. 'Well,' said Uncle Solomon, ponderously, 'if that's all, you've made a capital start. You can set up as a big littery pot at once, _you_ can, with a brace of 'em. I 'ope you're satisfied with all this, Jane, I'm sure?' 'It's no use saying anything,' she said; 'but it's a bad return after all your kindness to him.'