f a decent independence and
plenty of people will point fingers of admiration at me. You don't fully
appreciate this. Mind, it wouldn't do if I had no qualities. I have the
qualities; they only need bringing into prominence. If I am an unknown
man, and publish a wonderful book, it will make its way very slowly, or
not at all. If I, become a known man, publish that very same book, its
praise will echo over both hemispheres. I should be within the truth
if I had said "a vastly inferior book," But I am in a bland mood at
present. Suppose poor Reardon's novels had been published in the full
light of reputation instead of in the struggling dawn which was never to
become day, wouldn't they have been magnified by every critic? You have
to become famous before you can secure the attention which would give
fame.'

He delivered this apophthegm with emphasis, and repeated it in another
form.

'You have to obtain reputation before you can get a fair hearing for
that which would justify your repute. It's the old story of the French
publisher who said to Dumas: "Make a name, and I'll publish anything you
write." "But how the diable," cries the author, "am I to make a name
if I can't get published?" If a man can't hit upon any other way of
attracting attention, let him dance on his head in the middle of the
street; after that he may hope to get consideration for his volume of
poems. I am speaking of men who wish to win reputation before they are
toothless. Of course if your work is strong, and you can afford to wait,
the probability is that half a dozen people will at last begin to shout
that you have been monstrously neglected, as you have. But that happens
when you are hoary and sapless, and when nothing under the sun delights
you.'

He lit a new cigarette.

'Now I, my dear girls, am not a man who can afford to wait. First of
all, my qualities are not of the kind which demand the recognition of
posterity. My writing is for to-day, most distinctly hodiernal. It has
no value save in reference to to-day. The question is: How can I get
the eyes of men fixed upon me? The answer: By pretending I am quite
independent of their gaze. I shall succeed, without any kind of doubt;
and then I'll have a medal struck to celebrate the day of my marriage.'

But Jasper was not quite so well assured of the prudence of what he was
about to do as he wished his sisters to believe. The impulse to which he
had finally yielded still kept its force; ind