Ransome (spreading himself out luxuriously), went on: "It seemed to Harrington that having, to put it vulgarly, scored a fine though anonymous bull's-eye with 'Self-Control,' he might, with profit, attempt to do similar business on his own account. Accordingly, he wrote a collection of some half-dozen didactic essays on such subjects as 'Immortality,' 'Health and Wealth,' 'The Art of Happiness,' and so on, and sent them to a well-known publisher of works on religion and ethics. This fellow, after a most unethical delay of several months, returned them with his curt regrets and the information that such stuff was a drug on the publishing market. Then Harrington, nothing in the least daunted, sent them straightway off again to a publisher of sensational novels. This last gentleman, he was a gentleman, for he replied almost immediately, agreeing to publish if Mr. Harrington would--I'm quoting hazily from the letter which Harrington showed me--if he would 'undertake to supply a further eighteen essays to make up a book of the customary eighty-thousand-word length.'--'You have a distinct vein of humour,' wrote Mr. Potts, of Larraby and Potts, Limited--that was the firm--'and we think your work would be very saleable if you would throw off what appears to be a feeling of restraint.'--So I guess Harrington just threw off this feeling of restraint, whatever exactly it was, and began on those eighteen essays.... I hope this tale isn't boring you." "Not at all!"--"Go on!"--came the chorus. Ransome smiled. "There isn't much to go on to. The book of essays was called 'Sky-Signs,' and it was reviewed rather pleasantly in some of the papers. Then followed 'About It and About,' a further bundle of didactic essays, which ran into five editions in six months. And then 'Through my Lattice Window,' which was the sort of book you were not ashamed to take into the pew with you and read during the offertory, provided, of course, that it was handsomely bound in black morocco. And lastly came the Helping-Hand-Books, which Mr. Speed must read if he is to consider his education complete. That's all. The story's over." After the first buzz of comment Speed said: "I suppose he made plenty of money out of that sort of thing?" Ransome replied: "Yes, he made it and then he lost it. He dabbled in finance and had a geometrical theory about the rise and fall of rubber shares. Then he got plentifully in debt and when his health began to give way he took the bookshop because he thought it would be an easy way to earn money. He'd have lost on that if his daughter hadn't been a born business-woman." "But surely," said Clanwell, "the money kept on trickling in from his books?" Ransome shook his head. "No, because he'd sold the copyrights for cash down. He was a child in finance. But all the same he knew how to make money. For that you should refer to his book, 'How to be Successful,' _passim_. It's full of excellent fatherly advice."