s no use speculating on that now,
as you say. What is the next one?--'Transformation.' Of course you know
that Hawthorne wrote a book under that title, Lady Adela?"

"Yes," said she, cheerfully. "But there's no copyright in America; so
why shouldn't I take the title if it suits?"

He hesitated; there seemed to be some ethical point here; but he fell
back on base expediency.

"It is a mistake for two authors to use the same title--I'm sure it is,"
said he. "Look at the confusion. The reviewers might pass over your
novel, thinking it was only a new edition of Hawthorne's book."

"Yes, that's quite true," said Lady Adela, thoughtfully.

"Well, here is one," he continued. "'Sicily and South Kensington;'
that's odd; that's new; that might take the popular fancy."

"Do you know, that is a favorite of my own," Lady Adela said, with a
slight eagerness, "for it really describes the book. You understand, Mr.
Mangan, all the first part is about the South of Italy; and then I come
to London and try to describe everything that is just going on round
about us. I have put _everything_ in; so that really--though I shouldn't
praise myself--but it isn't praise at all, Mr. Mangan, it is merely
telling you what I have aimed at--and really any one taking up my poor
little book some hundred years hence might very fairly assume that it
was a correct picture of all that was going on in the reign of Queen
Victoria. I do not say that it is well done; not at all; that would be
self-praise; but I do think it may have some little historical value.
Modern life is so busy, so hurried, and so complex that it is difficult
to form any impression of it as a whole; I take up book after book,
written by living authors with whom I shouldn't dream of comparing
myself, and yet I see how small a circle their characters work in. You
would think the world consisted of only eight or ten people, and that
there was hardly room for them to move. They never get away from one
another; they don't mix in the crowd; there is no crowd. But here in my
poor way I am trying to show what a panorama London is; always changing;
occupations, desires, struggles following one another in breathless
rapidity; in short, I want to show modern life as it is, not as it is
dreamed of by clever authors who live in a study. Now that is my excuse,
Mr. Mangan, for being such a dreadful bore; and I am _so_ much obliged
to you for your kind advice about the title; it is so easy for clever