ndon, working vigorously at journalism, when some one was
needed to write extra lyrics for a pantomime then in preparation. A letter
of recommendation from an editor to the manager ended in Miss Clo Graves
writing the pantomime of _Puss in Boots_. Later a tragedy by her,
_Nitocris_, was produced for an afternoon at Drury Lane, and another of
her plays, _The Mother of Three_, proved not only a literary, but also a
material, success."

Her first novel to be signed Richard Dehan being so successful, an English
publisher planned to bring out an earlier, minor work, already published
as by Clotilde Graves, with "Richard Dehan" on the title-page. The author
was stirred to a vigorous and public protest. In the ensuing controversy
someone made the point that the proposed reissue would not be more
indefensible than the act of a publishing house in bringing out posthumous
"books" by O. Henry and dragging from its deserved oblivion Rudyard
Kipling's _Abaft the Funnel_.

I do not know whether the publishing of books is a business or a
profession. I should say that it has, at one time or another and by one or
another individual or concern, been pursued as either or both.

There have certainly been, and probably are, book publishers who not only
conduct their business as a business but as a business of a low order.
There have been and are book publishers who, though quite necessarily
business men, observe an ethical code as nice as that of any of the
recognised professions. Perhaps publishing books should qualify as an art,
since it has the characteristics of bringing out what is best or worst in
a publisher; and, indeed, if we are to hold that any successful means of
self-expression is art, then publishing books has been an art more than
once; for unquestionably there are publishers who find self-expression in
their work.

This is an interesting subject, but I must not pursue it in this place.
Certainly Miss Graves was justified in objecting to the use of her new pen
name on work already published under her own name. In her case, as I
think, the objection was peculiarly well-founded, because it seems to me
that Richard Dehan was a new person. Since Richard Dehan appeared on the
title-page of _The Dop Doctor_, there has never been a Clotilde Graves in
books. You have only to study the books. The _Dop Doctor_ was followed,
two years later, by _Between Two Thieves_. This novel has as a leading
character Florence Nightingale under th