and yet
considerably faster than a snail. The two principal members of the firm
were sitting together, with lighted cigars in their mouths, examining a
lot of paper samples that lay upon a table. They did no more at first
than glance up and nod, not having finished the business upon which
they were engaged.

"Is it any better than the last?" asked Mr. Slashem, referring to the
sample his partner was examining.

"It's just as good, at least," was the answer. "And an eighth of a cent
a pound less. I think we had better order five hundred reams."

"Five hundred reams," repeated the other, slowly, making a memorandum in
a little book that he carried. "And the other lot we'll wait about, eh?
Paper is not very steady. It's gone off a sixteenth since Thursday."

This conversation only served to infuriate still more the visitor who
stood waiting to pour out his wrath. Were these men wasting time over
fractions of a cent in the price of stock, just after they had rejected
one of the greatest romances of modern times!

With the precision of a duplex machine both partners finally looked up
from the table at the young man.

"Mr. Shirley Roseleaf?" said Mr. Slashem, interrogatively, glancing at
the card that the office boy had brought.

"Yes, sir!" was the sharp and disdainful reply.

"We need nothing in your line," interrupted Mr. Cutt. "I suppose Mr.
Trimm has our other order well under way?"

The look of indignant protest that appeared in Roseleaf's face caused
Mr. Slashem to speak.

"This is not Mr. Roseberg," he explained. "My partner took you for an
agent of our bookbinder," he added.

The novelist thought his skin would burst.

"I am quite complimented," he said, in an icy tone. "Let me introduce
myself. I am the author of 'Evelyn's Faith.'"

The partners consulted each other.

"The similarity of names confused me," said Mr. Cutt. "Is your book one
that we have published?"

Saints and angels!

"It is one that was sent to you _for_ publication," replied Roseleaf,
with much heat, "and has been returned this morning--_rejected_!"

"Ah!" said Mr. Cutt.

"We have nothing to do with that department," said Mr. Slashem, coming
to the rescue. "You should see Mr. Gouger, on the second floor above;
though if he has rejected your story a visit would be quite useless. He
never decides a matter without sufficient reason."

"Oh, dear, no!" added Mr. Cutt, feeling again of the paper samples.

Shirley Roseleaf listen