The newspaper., 1909-10-08

d
But the maid gave him her atten-
ton with open, care-free face and
gay, sportive smile that seemed to
deny such ownership.
lie did not feel the extent of his
happiness until she had gone, leaving
hint-oh. such gentle hint-to
call upon her. Then he realized that
he had been drunk with joy. 'And
she paid more attention to me than
she did to him"-that was what
pleased him most.
Perhaps she mistook my evident
embarrassment for admiration of
her." he thought, absently.
In the days that followed he
sought her out, cultivating her,
study ing her aims and ambitions,
her desires and wishes, lavishing
upon her such tokens OF sacred love
and such dignified caresses as he
might lavish upon the goddess of
fate holding the key to heaven.
Incidentally, the remnant of his
boarded six hundred disappeared
and debts began to appear. did he
love hero he asked himself. and de-
cided that WAS quite another ques-
ton. She was only n girl, he told
himself; but when he considered that
she held the heart of that great giant
OF literary fame, that made the win
ming of her favor. aside from love,
quite another question.
Jack found that Ollie Brown was
chief reader on this giants magazine
and as such knew all those fine
points about short story writing
that he did not understand.
She pointed out to him delicately,
the faults In his manuscript. His
work as newspaper reporter had
taught him carelessness in construc-
ton. she told him. She laid before
him all the knowledge she possessed
for improving and strengthening his
work; she even went so far as tocor-
rect and rcarrange some OF his best
stories. recommending them to the
Giant himself.
Now at last his work had begun to
appear in the best magazines. He
focused all his ability upon the pro-
duction OF better stories in the light
OF her suggestions and tested their
worth by submitting them To other
magazines where he was unknown.
I The result was the same-they were
accepted. He was now out of debt
and making money. He no longer
needed the assistance of Miss Ollie
ready grown too fond of him. His
visits to her grew less frequent. They
finally ceased altogether: and he felt
no computations of conscience.
There was only one more round In
his ladder-his fame would he COM
pletc ~ he could only mount that
round: There was one great maga.
zine I'm which he could not gain ad-
mittance. lt worried him contin.
ually. He studied that magazine
rellgiously-it became his Bible. He
even bought back numbers OF II and
studied them so that he might more
fully appreciate the editors object
and understand his point OF view.
Then he tried To anticipate the de.
sires and tastes OF that best class oi
readers-the subscribers to that
magazine.
lie tried to initiate its style of ex.
preston. He was apt and shrewd
and he thought he understood the
art and science Of story writing, but
somehow. he was not quite able to
reach the height OF artistic expires
sion and the consummate skill dis.
played in the literature of its pages.
Always his stories were returned
with curt rejection, but his deter.
mination grew in proportion as the
task seemed more impossible.
He abandoned all other purposes
in life; his soul yearned for only one
thing-to gain admittance to that
magazine.
He studied his returned manu-.
scripts, noting wherein he had failed
then he spent long days. numbering
week, writing and rewriting one
love story that he hoped would
please them.