light censures. This also he read to Dora.

'You wouldn't suspect they were written by the same man, eh?'

'No. You have changed the style very skilfully.'

'I doubt if they'll be much use. Most people will fling the book down
with yawns before they're half through the first volume. If I knew a
doctor who had many cases of insomnia in hand, I would recommend "Mr
Bailey" to him as a specific.'

'Oh, but it is really clever, Jasper!'

'Not a doubt of it. I half believe what I have written. And if only we
could get it mentioned in a leader or two, and so on, old Biffen's fame
would be established with the better sort of readers. But he won't
sell three hundred copies. I wonder whether Robertson would let me do a
notice for his paper?'

'Biffen ought to be grateful to you, if he knew,' said Dora, laughing.

'Yet, now, there are people who would cry out that this kind of thing is
disgraceful. It's nothing of the kind. Speaking seriously, we know that
a really good book will more likely than not receive fair treatment from
two or three reviewers; yes, but also more likely than not it will be
swamped in the flood of literature that pours forth week after week, and
won't have attention fixed long enough upon it to establish its repute.
The struggle for existence among books is nowadays as severe as among
men. If a writer has friends connected with the press, it is the plain
duty of those friends to do their utmost to help him. What matter if
they exaggerate, or even lie? The simple, sober truth has no chance
whatever of being listened to, and it's only by volume of shouting that
the ear of the public is held. What use is it to Biffen if his work
struggles to slow recognition ten years hence? Besides, as I say, the
growing flood of literature swamps everything but works of primary
genius. If a clever and conscientious book does not spring to success
at once, there's precious small chance that it will survive. Suppose it
were possible for me to write a round dozen reviews of this book, in as
many different papers, I would do it with satisfaction. Depend upon
it, this kind of thing will be done on that scale before long. And
it's quite natural. A man's friends must be helped, by whatever means,
quocunque modo, as Biffen himself would say.'

'I dare say he doesn't even think of you as a friend now.'

'Very likely not. It's ages since I saw him. But there's much
magnanimity in my character, as I have often told you. It deli