fate of 'Dawn.' In most quarters it met with the usual
reception of a first novel by an unknown man. Some of the reviewers
sneered at it, and some 'slated' it, and made merry over the
misprints--a cheap form of wit that saves those who practise it the
trouble of going into the merits of a book. Two very good notices fell
to its lot, however, in the _Times_ and in the _Morning Post_, the first
of these speaking about the novel in terms of which any amateur writer
might feel proud, though, unfortunately, it appeared too late to be of
much service. Also, I discovered that the story had interested a great
many readers, and none of them more than the late Mr. Truebner, through
whose kind offices it came to be published, who, I was told, paid me the
strange compliment of continuing its perusal till within a few hours of
his death, a sad event that the enemy might say was hastened thereby. In
this connection I remember that the first hint I received that my story
was popular with the ordinary reading public, whatever reviewers might
say of it, came from the lips of a young lady, a chance visitor at my
house, whose name I have forgotten. Seeing the book lying on the table,
she took a volume up, saying--

[Illustration: A STUDY CORNER]

'Oh, have you read 'Dawn'? It is a first-rate novel; I have just
finished it.' Somebody explained, and the subject dropped, but I was not
a little gratified by the unintended compliment.

These facts encouraged me, and I wrote a second novel--'The Witch's
Head.' This book I endeavoured to publish serially by posting the MS.
to the editors of various magazines for their consideration. But in
those days there were no literary agents or Authors' Societies to help
young writers with their experience and advice, and the bulky manuscript
always came back to my hand like a boomerang, till at length I wearied
of the attempt. Of course I sent to the wrong people; afterwards the
editor of a leading monthly told me that he would have been delighted to
run the book had it fallen into the hands of his firm. In the end, as in
the case of 'Dawn,' I published 'The Witch's Head' in three volumes. Its
reception astonished me, for I did not think so well of the book as I
had done of its predecessor. In that view, by the way, the public has
borne out my judgment, for to this day three copies of 'Dawn' are
absorbed for every two of 'The Witch's Head,' a proportion that has
never varied since the two works appeared