man & Hall were with me, and, the
case being urgent, I wished to have the further benefit of your kind
advice and assistance. Macrone and H---- (arcades ambo) waited on them
this morning, and after a long discussion peremptorily refused to take
one farthing less than the two thousand pounds. H---- repeated the
statement of figures which he made to you yesterday, and put it to Hall
whether he could say from his knowledge of such matters that the
estimate of probable profit was exorbitant. Hall, whose judgment may be
relied on in such matters, could not dispute the justice of the
calculation. And so the matter stood. In this dilemma it occurred to
them (my _Pickwick_ men), whether, if the _Sketches_ _must_ appear in
monthly numbers, it would not be better for them to appear for their
benefit and mine conjointly than for Macrone's sole use and behoof;
whether they, having all the _Pickwick_ machinery in full operation,
could not obtain for them a much larger sale than Macrone could ever
get; and whether, even at this large price of two thousand pounds, we
might not, besides retaining the copyright, reasonably hope for a good
profit on the outlay. These suggestions having presented themselves,
they came straight to me (having obtained a few hours' respite) and
proposed that we should purchase the copyrights between us for the two
thousand pounds, and publish them in monthly parts. I need not say that
no other form of publication would repay the expenditure; and they wish
me to explain by an address that _they_, who may be fairly put forward
as the parties, have been driven into that mode of publication, or the
copyrights would have been lost. I considered the matter in every
possible way. I sent for you, but you were out. I thought of"--what need
not be repeated, now that all is past and gone--"and consented. Was I
right? I think you will say yes." I could not say no, though I was glad
to have been no party to a price so exorbitant; which yet profited
extremely little the person who received it. He died in hardly more than
two years; and if Dickens had enjoyed the most liberal treatment at his
hands, he could not have exerted himself more generously for the widow
and children.

His new story was now beginning largely to share attention with his
_Pickwick Papers_, and it was delightful to see how real all its people
became to him. What I had most, indeed, to notice in him, at the very
outset of his career, was his indifferen