the house,' said I.
'My husband is not within at present,' she replied; 'what is your
business?' 'I have merely brought something to show him,' said I, 'but I
will call again.' 'If you are the young gentleman who has been here
before,' said the lady, 'with poems and ballads, as, indeed, I know you
are,' she added, smiling, 'for I have seen you through the glass door, I
am afraid it will be useless; that is,' she added with another smile, 'if
you bring us nothing else.' 'I have not brought you poems and ballads
now,' said I, 'but something widely different; I saw your advertisement
for a tale or a novel, and have written something which I think will
suit; and here it is,' I added, showing the roll of paper which I held in
my hand. 'Well,' said the bookseller's wife, 'you may leave it, though I
cannot promise you much chance of its being accepted. My husband has
already had several offered to him; however, you may leave it; give it
me. Are you afraid to intrust it to me?' she demanded somewhat hastily,
observing that I hesitated. 'Excuse me,' said I, 'but it is all I have
to depend upon in the world; I am chiefly apprehensive that it will not
be read.' 'On that point I can reassure you,' said the good lady,
smiling, and there was now something sweet in her smile. 'I give you my
word that it shall be read; come again to-morrow morning at eleven, when,
if not approved, it shall be returned to you.'

I returned to my lodging, and forthwith betook myself to bed,
notwithstanding the earliness of the hour. I felt tolerably tranquil; I
had now cast my last stake, and was prepared to abide by the result.
Whatever that result might be, I could have nothing to reproach myself
with; I had strained all the energies which nature had given me in order
to rescue myself from the difficulties which surrounded me. I presently
sank into a sleep, which endured during the remainder of the day, and the
whole of the succeeding night. I awoke about nine on the morrow, and
spent my last threepence on a breakfast somewhat more luxurious than the
immediately preceding ones, for one penny of the sum was expended on the
purchase of milk.

At the appointed hour I repaired to the house of the bookseller; the
bookseller was in his shop. 'Ah,' said he, as soon as I entered, 'I am
glad to see you.' There was an unwonted heartiness in the bookseller's
tones, an unwonted benignity in his face. 'So,' said he, after a pause,
'you have taken my