ret.'

'You read the old Masters?'

'The obsolete Thackeray? Yes, I know him pretty well.'

'What are you publishing just now?'

'This to an author? Don't you know?'

'I blush,' said Logan.

'Unseen,' said Miss Martin, scrutinising him closely.

'Well, you do not read the serials to which I contribute,' she went on.
'I have two or three things running. There is _The Judge's Secret_.'

'What was that?'

'He did it himself.'

'Did what?'

'Killed the bishop. He is not a very plausible judge in English: in
French he would be all right, a _juge d'instruction_, the man who cross-
examines the prisoners in private, you know.'

'Judges don't do that in England,' said Logan.

'No, but this case is an exception. The judge was such a very old
friend, a college friend, of the murdered bishop. So he takes advantage
of his official position, and steals into the cell of the accused. My
public does not know any better, and, of course, I have no reviewers. I
never come out in a book.'

'And why did the judge assassinate the prelate?'

'The prelate knew too much about the judge, who sat in the Court of
Probate and Divorce.'

'Satan reproving sin?' asked Logan.

'Yes, exactly; and the bishop being interested in the case--'

'No scandal about Mrs. Proudie?'

'No, not that exactly, still, you see the motive?'

'I do,' said Logan. 'And the conclusion?'

'The bishop was not really dead at all. It takes some time to explain.
The _corpus delicti_--you see I know my subject--was somebody else. And
the bishop was alive, and secretly watching the judge, disguised as Mr.
Sherlock Holmes. Oh, I know it is too much in Dickens's manner. But my
public has not read Dickens.'

'You interest me keenly' said Logan.

'I am glad to hear it. And the penny public take freely. Our
circulation goes up. I asked for a rise of three pence on the thousand
words.'

'Now this _is_ what I call literary conversation,' said Logan. 'It is
like reading _The British Weekly Bookman_. Did you get the threepence?
if the inquiry is not indelicate.'

'I got twopence. But, you see, there are so many of us.'

'Tell me more. Are you serialising anything else?'

'Serialising is the right word. I see you know a great deal about
literature. Yes, I am serialising a featured tale.'

'A featured tale?'

'You don't know what that is? You do not know everything yet! It is
called _Myself_.'

'Why _Myself_?'

'Oh, because th