Your story has now been read twice, and the conclusion very reluctantly come to by the writer is that it would be impossible to use it in _Brown's Magazine_ in its present form. It bears many marks of inexperience, but at the same time it has such a strikingly original quality that the writer would be very glad to have a talk with you about it. In the meantime the MS is being returned to you. Yours very truly, EDWARD AMBROSE. "I don't call that writing," said Miss Dobbs, who had been utterly defeated by the hand of the editor of _Brown's Magazine_. "It is just a fly walking across the paper without having wiped its feet. Read it to me, Mr. Harper." Mr. Harper, who had spent nearly an hour the previous evening in making out the letter, and now knew it by heart, enforced her respect by reading it aloud as if it had been nothing out of the common. "Marks of inexperience!" was her comment. "Like his impudence. I wonder who he thinks he is. You take my advice, Mr. Harper, and send it to the _Covent Garden_. See what they've got to say about it." However, before taking that course, Henry Harper felt it would be the part of wisdom to get in touch with the real live editor who had expressed a wish to see him. Besides, there had been something in the letter signed "Edward Ambrose" which had set a chord vibrating in his heart. IX In order to pay a visit to 12B, Pall Mall, Henry Harper had to ask for leave. This was readily granted by his master, who was even more impressed by the letter from the editor of _Brown's Magazine_ than was its recipient. As became one who had a practical acquaintance with editors and publishers, Mr. Rudge knew that for more than a century _Brown's Magazine_ had been a Mecca of the man of letters. Great names were enshrined in its history. These began with Byron and Scott, and flowed through the Victorian epoch to the most gifted and representative minds of the present. Mr. Ambrose himself was a critic of some celebrity; moreover, _Brown's Magazine_ was still half a crown a month as it always had been, so that even its subscribers had a sense of exclusiveness. Henry Harper was so shy that when the hour came for him to set forth to 12B, Pall Mall, his one desire was to take the advice of Miss Dobbs and not pay his visit at all. But Mr. Rudge was adamant. Henry must go to Pall Mall if only for the sake of the firm. Just as the young man was about to set out, his master emphasized the immense importance of the matter by appearing on the scene, clothes brush in hand, in order to give a final touch to his toilet. No discredit must be done to 249, Charing Cross Road. An unprecedented honor had been conferred upon it.