ory-telling days that prompted me,
when poetry seemed a drug in the market, to try my hand at what is now,
I believe, called 'The Complete Novelette.'

I set myself seriously to work, laid in a large stock of apples and
jumbles, and spent several consecutive afternoons in completing a story
which I called 'A Pleasant Evening.' After I had written it I copied it
out in my best hand, and then, with fear and trembling, I sent it to
the _Family Herald_.

I sent it to the _Family Herald_ because I had heard a lady who visited
at our house say that she knew a lady who knew a lady who had sent a
story to the _Family Herald_, never having written anything before in
her life, and the story had been accepted, and the writer had received
five pounds for it by return of post.

[Illustration: THE BALCONY]

I didn't receive anything by return of post, but in about a fortnight my
manuscript came back to me. Nothing daunted, I carefully cut off the
corner on which 'Declined with thanks' had been written, and I sent the
story to _Chamber's Journal_. Here it met with a similar fate, but I
fancy it took a little longer to come back, and it bore signs of wear
and tear. I knew, or I had read, that it was not wise to let your
manuscript have the appearance of being rejected, so I spent several
unpleasant evenings in writing 'A Pleasant Evening' out again, and I
sent it to _All the Year Round_.

It came back! This time I didn't take the trouble to open it I knew it
directly I saw it, and as it reached me so I flung it in my desk and bit
my lips, and made up my mind that after all it was better to be accepted
as a poet in the 'Answers to Correspondents' column of the _Halfpenny
Journal_ than to be rejected as a story-writer by the editors of
higher-priced periodicals.

[Illustration: 'Beauty,' an old Favourite, Twenty Years old.]

But though I played with poetry again, I didn't even succeed in getting
into the 'Answers to Correspondents.' My vaulting ambition o'erleaped
its selle, and I sent my verses to journals which didn't 'correspond.'
In those days I kept a little book, in which I entered all the
manuscripts I sent to editors, and from it now I copy the following
instructive record. R stands for 'Returned':--

_Once a Week_ 'The Minstrel's Curse' R.
_Belgravia_ 'After the Battle' R.
_Broadway_ 'After the Battle' R.
_Fun_ 'Nearer and Dearer'