Los Angeles herald., 1910-09-25
HOPE
What s it aboua

does, you 1t S not a novel. -
We parted at the door of the publisher who had
been ready to oblige Mrs Clinton, and would, l
thought, regret his eomplaisance and L went
to my office, dismissng the Prince Consort and his
little thing from my mind.
l went to the Clintons about three months later
in order to bid them farewell before starting for
holiday on the continent They were, for a wonder,
without other visitors, and when had talked
Mrs Clinton last production she stretched out her
hand and pointed to the table.
"And there" she said, with little laugh lis
Thompson's (the Prince Consort IS Christian is
Thompson) magnum opus Vincents have just sent
him his advance copies. -
The Prince Consort laughed nervously as / rose and
walked to the table.
Never mind, papa, - heard Muriel say,
agingly 'You know Mr.. George Vincent says it's
very good.
"Oh, he thought that would please your MOTHER"
protested the Prince Consort
I examined the two large, thick volumes that lay
the table, l glanced at the title page and felt
sorry for the poor Prince Consort 1t must have been
a terrible grind to write such book-almost
bad reading it. But said something civil about
the Importance and interest of the subject.
eff you really don t mind looking at il, said the
Prince Consort, 'I should like awfully to send you a
copy
''Oh, yes You must read it, said Mrs. Clinton.
''Why, I'm going to read-well, some of it I've
promisedl''
30 am L, SAID ltGle Murlel, Wnlle Jne frlnc0
Consort rubbed his hands together with sort of
pride which was, its other side, the profoundest
humility. He wondering think, that he should
have been able to produce any book at alleven the
worst of books-and admring talent which he had
not considered himself to possess.
I'm going to worry everybody who comes here to
buy tor to order it at Nude s, anyhow pursued
Mrs Clinton. ''What's written in this house must
be read"
81 hope Vincents won It lose a lot over it, said
the Prince Consort, shaking his head.
''Oh WE'LL they We made good deal out of me be-
fore now,' laughed his wife lightly
did not take the Prince Consort s book away with
to the continent. Whatever else it might be, it
was certainly not holiday reading, and it would have
needed a portmanteau to itself. But the reverber-
alton of the extraordinary and almost unequaled
''boom' which the book made reached me in the re-
cesses of Switzerland. I the Times of three
days before in my hotel, and it had three columns
and half on Mr.. Thompson Clinton g work The
weekly Budget which my sister sent to me at Ander.
matt contained, besides a long review, portrait of
the Prince Consort Che must have sat to them pur
pose) and biographical sketch of him, quite accu-
rate to the remarkably few incidents which his
previous life contained 1t this sketch which first
caused to begin to realize what happening
For the SKETCH after series of euoges (Which to my
prepossessed mind seemed absurdly extravagant)
the Prince Consort, reached its conclusion with the
following remark: g Mr.. Thompson Clinton s wife
is also writer and is known in the literary world as
the author of than clever and amusing
novel. - laid down the Budget with vague feel
ing that revolution had occurred 1t was now Mrs.
Clinton who wrote too.'
1 was right in my feeling, yet my feeling in
adequate to the reality with which I faced
my return to England The Prince Consort was the
hero of the hour. 1 had written him a line of warm
congratulation, and settled at to the book not
only in order to be able talk about it, but also be-
could not, without personal investigation, be-
a wonderful book-full of learning and research,
acute and nrnfnund in arnlment (oreatast of all