ow tha'z best to
publish the literary treasure they've foun' and which has egspand' from
one story to three or four. Biccause the one which was firzt acquire'
is laztly turn' out to be the only one of a su'possible
incompat'--eh--in-com-pat-a-bil-ity--to the others." His bow yielded
the floor to Chester. "Remain seated, if you please," he said.

"In spite of my wish to save this manuscript all avoidable delay,"
Chester began, "I've kept it a week. I like it--much. I think that in
quieter times, with the reading world in a more contemplative mood, any
publisher would be glad to print it. At the same time it seems to me
to have faults of construction that ought to come out of it before it
goes to a possibly unsympathetic publisher. Yet after--was Mme.
Alexandre about----?"

"Juz' to say tha'z maybe better those fault' are there. If the
publisher be not _sympathetique_ we want him to rif-use that
manuscrip'."

"Yes!" several responded. "Yes! He can't have it! Tha'z the en' of
_that_ publisher."

"Well, at any rate," Chester said, "after using up this whole week
trying, fruitlessly, to edit those faults out of it, here it is
unaltered. I still feel them, but I have to confess that to feel them
is one thing and to find them is quite another. Maybe they're only in
me."

"Tha'z the only plase they are," said Dubroca, with kind gravity. "I
had the same feeling--till a dream, which reveal' to me that the
feeling was my fault. The manuscrip' is perfec'."

"Messieurs," Mme. Castanado broke in, "please to hear Mlle. Aline."
And Aline spoke:

"Perfect or no, I think that's what we don't require to conclude. But
if that manuscript will join well with those other two--or three, or
four, if we find so many--or if it will rather disjoint them--'tis that
we must decide; is it not, M. De l'Isle?"

"Yes, and tha'z easy. That story is going to assimilate those other'
to a perfegtion! For several reason'. Firz', like those other', 'tis
not figtion; 'tis true. Second, like those, 'tis a personal
egsperienze told by the person egsperienzing. Third, every one of
those person' were known to some of us, an' we can certify that person
that he or she was of the greatez' veracity! Fourth, the United States
they've juz' lately purchaze' that island where that story tranzpire.
And, fifthly, the three storie' they are joint'; not stiff', like
board' of a floor, but loozly, like those link' of a chain. They are
jointed