The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1884-07-11

Iy-made IA feature OF, In short Shall
be very pleased TO consider anything OF
that sort You may favor me. with, Miss
JONES'
He always paused most provokingly
after the Miss" and / hardly knew
whether to be angry on to laugh out
right as / stammered a feeble THANK
YOU"
And you really should cut Swim
bourne, he added, with a meaning
glance at the manuscript.
II don't knowMr. Swinbourne-that
IS, 1 met him only once, and then he
said something to me in Greek re-
piled.
he might have said something much
worse. But I merely mean that you
shouldn't devote so much Of your time
to his poetry-the Poems and Ballads,
for instance, and the Songs Before
Sunrise
How do you know / do?"
internal evidence" and he touched
my manuscript. "This betrays a severe
course. You must alter your style, Miss
Jones. Time enough for you to come
to the ynical-sensual-me
comprehensive in ten years, say. You'll
be educated up to the point of not be-
heyeing a. word of it by that time.
Kindly leave me your address, and the
manuscript shall be returned in the usu-
al way"
mo. IL Brown street, Bloomsbury,
w \, II replied, my face crimson,
care of Mrs. Kent"
He wrote it down, and then stood up
to indicate that the interview was over,
bowed formally, and then touched a
little bell. Suddenly a small boy
appeared, who conducted me down
dark break-neck stairs, through
several mouldy, dusty laby-
rinthine passages and out through a
booksellers shop. j felt more thor
oughly small, mean, miserable and dis
gusted than | had ever felt in my whole
life as | emerged from the shady by
street containing the Office into the light
and hustle Of Piccadilly, and, as I got
into a bus, / vowed never again to come
to o personal encounter with an editor.
Hitherto i had been content to drop my
little contribution modestly into the let
ter-boxes of certain weekly publications
that delight in small stories, or / would
send them by post and await the result
with what patience could. Sometimes
my stories and verses were accepted,
sometimes not, and l fancied that, if an
editor only knew how exceedingly in
dustrious / was, how very much in ear
nest, how deyoutedly attached to
my calling-for / had married the
muse of Literature for better for
worse-there was no choice be-
tween that and being a governess
-he would have a far better opinion of
me and give me an important perma-
nent positionon his paper Immediately.
Then / had heard so much about the
editor of the Arlington, all the girls ut
the reading-room of the British Museum
were continually talking of him and in
an evil hour, armed with my most elab-
crate poetical production, | made my
way to the Office and requested, and
strange to say, was granted for Lon
| don editors ere difficult to access) an in
terview. The result was pain, shame,
| confusion, discontinue and, worst of all.
failure. Heaven and earth, how /
/ hated that mar as / sat in the most
remote corner of the bus on my home
ward iourney-how / vowed to be re-
venged and let him know some day
whom he had sneered and ieered at! ]
would put him in q novel, In a comedy,
in a burlesque, would caricature him
with pen and pencil, / would become
famous merely to spite him, and refuse
-oh, the Joy of that thought III would
refuse to write a serial for his hateful
magazine. I believe / became almost
eloquent in my internal denunciation Of
him and, as an immediate practical,
disdainful defiance of him, I got out al
Oxford street and W.. into Mudie'sf for
another volume Of Swinburre.
Tn one way or another the editor Of
the Arlington was a good deal in my
thoughts during the next week, and
the more considered his conduct the
more r detestedshim; my cheeks burned
and my ears tingled as i recalled his
| low, knocking tones and quiet, annihil-
ating glances. AS for submitting story,
essay or articles to his tender mercies-
never!
IA fortnight passed, and my manu-
script did not come back. My name
was not Jones; but I really do live with
Mrs. Kent, in Brown street; and / told
her all about it; so / should have re-
ceived it had it been sent. Of course
he had tossed il IN a capacious waste.
paper basket that / had noticed under
his table, and that was the end of it
One day, quite q month after my en-
counter with the autocrat Of the Airing.
| ton. Mrs. Kent announced a visitor, .
gentleman to see me; and in a moment
there entered the editor, cool
calm self-possessed and smiling than