“There’s no doubt in my mind that I would. The writing of histories of periods has long ago been placed among the great industries of the country, I know.” “I was appalled the other day when I began to think how utterly at sea I should be if I had to write a history, or for that matter, a biography; and history and biography, mind you, are the branches that do not need any imagination for their working up.” “Oh, do they not?” “Well, of course--but I mean that if one has to write a play----” “What, is there a play department too? What on earth have plays got to do with literature?” “The connection just now is faint enough, I admit. And why?--why, I ask?” “Let me guess. Is it because up to the present there has not been a Technical School of Literature?” “Of course it is. But at one time plays formed a very important part of the literature of the day.” “Undoubtedly. The author of Shakespeare’s plays, whoever he was, was certainly a literary man. I wonder, by the way, if there was a Technical School in his time.” “There wasn’t. That’s how it comes that he knew so little about the technicalities of the modern stage. Take my word for it, Josephine, Mr. Richmond will prevent the possibility of a recurrence of such mistakes as those Shakespeare made. And then there are the departments of fiction and poetry. Could anything be worse than the attempts at fiction and poetry which one meets nowadays?” “Impossible, I admit.” “The poor things who make those poor attempts are really not to be blamed. If they were set down to make a pair of boots should any one blame them if they failed? Now I hear it said that there is no market for poetry in these days. I don’t believe it.” “I believe that if a paper pattern were to be given away with every volume the public would buy as many volumes of poetry as could be printed, if only the patterns were of a high class.” “The public would buy poetry if a first-class article were offered to them, but as only one first-class volume appears for every five hundred of a second-class or a third-class or no class at all, the public are content to go mad over the merest doggerel, provided it is technically good doggerel.” “Mr. Richmond will guarantee that his third year pupils will turn out good doggerel, I’m sure. And what department do you mean to graduate in, my Amber?” Amber paused before replying. A line--a delicate little crayon line--appeared across her forehead, suggesting earnest thought as she said: “I have a great hope to graduate in every department. But I think for the present I shall confine myself to the ‘Answers to Correspondents.’” “Oh, the school is actually so technical as that?” cried Josephine.