morning i have an appointment with him at twelve you as tempest the author of the book mr is going to and make a boom of could not possibly put your name to such a it would not be good form � it might crop up afterwards and i sorrows of satan so betray the sec ts of the prison house but for me it is another affair am going to pose as your � your literary agent who pockets ten per cent of the profits and wants to a big thing out of you and fm going to talk the master over with the perfectly practical who has like every true a keen eye for the main chance of course it will be in confidence � strict confident e and he laughed it s a l a question of business you know commercial days literature a become a trade g else and even critics work for what pays them as indeed why the not do you mean to tell me will take that five hundred i asked i mean to tell you nothing of the kind i would not put the matter so for the world this money is not for � it is for a literary charity indeed i thought you had an idea perhaps of offering a bribe bribe good heavens bribe a critic impossible my good � such a thing was never heard of � never never never and he shook his head and rolled up his eyes with infinite solemnity no no press people never take money for anything � not even for a new gold company � not even for putting a notice of a fashionable concert into the morning post everything in the english press is the just expression of pure and lofty sentiment believe me this little is for a ty of which mr is chief patron � you see the civil list all go by favour to the wrong persons now to the keeping of lunatic and retired who never could act � the actual genius never gets anything out of government and moreover would scorn to take a from that body which him anything higher than a money recognition it is as great an insult to offer a of fifty or a the sorrows of satan hundred pounds a year to a really great writer as to give him a � and we cannot fall much lower than to be a knight as knights go the present five hundred pounds will help to relieve certain poor and proud but pressing literary cases known to alone his expression at this moment was so extraordinary that i entirely failed to it i have no doubt i shall be able to represent the benevolent and respectable literary of course i j insist on my ten per cent t t began laughing y again but i can t stop to discuss tl now with you v � i m off i promised he with him at twelve o clock precisely and it s now half past eleven i shall lunch with him so don t wait for me and concerning the five hundred you needn t be in my debt an hour longer than you like � i ll take a for the money back from you this evening all right i said but perhaps the great of the will reject your proposals with scorn if he does then is realized replied carefully drawing on his gloves as he spoke where s a copy of your book ah here s one smelling newly of the press and he slipped the volume into his overcoat pocket allow me before departure to express the opinion that you are a singularly ungrateful fellow here am i perfectly devoted to your interests � and despite my actually prepared to pose to as your acting manager pro and you haven t so much as a thank you to throw at me he stood before me smiling the of kindness and good humour i laughed a little will never take you for an acting manager or literary agent i said you don t look it if i seem i m sorry � but the fact is i am disgusted at what he inquired still smiling oh at the of everything i answered impatiently the stupid farce of it all why shouldn t a book the sorrows of satan get noticed on its own merits without any appeal to and influential wire pulling on the press exactly and he delicately a grain of dust off his coat while speaking and why shouldn t a man get received in society on his own merits without any money to recommend him or any influential friend to back him up i was silent the world is as it is made he went on regarding me it is moved by the lowest and motives � it works for the most trivial ridiculous and aims it is not a paradise it is not a happy family of united and affectionate brethren it is an over colony of and who fancy they are men philosophers in old days tried to teach it that the should be for the growth and encouragement of a nobler race but they preached in vain � there never were enough real men alive to overcome the majority of the beasts god himself they say came down from heaven to try and set wrong things right and to restore if possible his own image to the general aspect of humanity � and even he failed there is very little of god in this world i said bitterly there is much more devil he smiled � a musing dreamy smile that his countenance and made him look like a fine absorbed in the thought of some new and glorious song no doubt he said after a little pause mankind certainly prefer the devil to any other deity � therefore if they elect him as 