“What I want to talk to you about, Mr. Stirling, is the work which you contemplate in the future. As I said, I was interested at once in this work; I should like very much indeed to advise you and to be of any assistance to you that I can. I should like very much to know what your plans are. I should like very much to see anything that you might write. Are you contemplating anything just at present?” “No, not just at present.” “Not? Don't you think that you might find it possible to produce something just a little more in accordance with the public taste? Don't you think, for instance, that you might possibly write a novel?” (Some hesitation.) “I have thought of a novel.” “Ah! And might I ask--would it be a character study?--or perhaps historical?--or--” “It would be historical.” “Ah! And of what period?” “The Civil War.” (A great look of satisfaction.) “Dear me! Why, that is very interesting indeed, Mr. Stirling! I should like to see such a work from your pen. And are you thinking of completing it soon?” (General discomfort on my part.) “I had never thought of the time exactly. I had feared it would take a great many years.” (Perplexity.) “Oh, pshaw!--still, of course, that is the way all great work is done. Yes, one has to obey one's own inspiration. I understand perfectly how he can not adjust himself to the market. I have seen too often how disastrous such attempts are.” (More courteous platitudes, I assenting. Then at last, weary--) “You don't think, then, that you will be able to undertake The Captive?” “No, Mr. Stirling, I really do not think we can. You understand, of course, if I take this work to the firm I have to tell them I think it will sell; and that I can not honestly do. You know that a publishing house is just as much limited as any other business firm--it can not afford to publish books that the trade does not want. And this is an especially unusual sort of thing, it is by no means easy to appreciate--you must be aware of that yourself, Mr. Stirling. You see when I read a manuscript I have to keep constantly before my mind the thought of how it is going to affect the public--a very different thing from my own judgment, of course. From the former standpoint I believe there are things in The Captive that would meet with a reception not satisfactory to either of us, Mr. Stirling.” (Perplexity on my part.) “You'll have to explain that to me, I fear.” “Why--but the explaining of that would be to offer you my opinion about the book--” “I should be very pleased to hear it. Your reason for declining it, then, is not altogether that it is a blank-verse drama?”