and sundry obstacles to their union were to be developed as the story
progressed. Gouger warned his young friend not to write too fast, and to
content himself for the present with delineating the phase of love with
which he had become familiar.

"Later on," he said, "when your hero finds that this girl is not all his
bright fancy painted her--when it is proved beyond a doubt that she has
played him false, that she has another lover--"

Roseleaf turned pale.

"But that will never be!" he interrupted.

"It will, of course--in the story," corrected Gouger. "She will lead him
a race that will make him an enemy to the entire sex, if she is used for
all the dramatic effect possible. People expect to find immaculate
purity in the earlier chapters of a story, as they do in small children.
With the progress of the action they look for something more exciting.
To sketch a seraph who remains one would only be to repeat the failure
you made in your other effort--the one you brought to me the day I met
you first. It is not the glory of heaven that attracts audiences to our
churches, but the dramatic quality of hell. A sermon without a large
spice of the devil in it would be much worse than a rendition of Hamlet
minus the Prince. Put your heroine in the clouds, if you will, at the
beginning. The higher she goes, the greater will be her fall, and the
greater, consequently, your triumph."

The young novelist shivered as he listened to these expressions. How
could he build a heroine on the model of Daisy Fern, and conceive the
possibility that she would ever allow her white robes to touch the
earth? He might have constructed such a plot with Millicent as the
central figure, though that would be by no means easy; but Daisy!
Impossible! He asked the critic if it would not do to send the hero of
the tale to perdition, while leaving his sweetheart immaculate to the
close.

"No," said Gouger, decidedly. "A man's fall is not much of a fall, any
way you put it. The public is not interested in such matters. It demands
a female sacrifice, like some of the ancient gods, and it will not be
appeased with less. I expect you to be new and original in your
treatment of the theme, but the subject itself is as old as fiction. You
have too little imagination, as I have told you before. You must
cultivate that talent. Having conceived your paragon, imagine her placed
under temptations she cannot resist; surround her with an environment
from which