Julia, with her hair down, in an eau-de-Nil morning wrapper, and frying bacon over a Duplex oilstove, was not lovely—though, indeed, few of us are lovely in the early morning. She had started the flat before she was famous. It was a bachelor girl's flat, where the bachelor girl was supposed to do her own cooking as far as breakfast and tea were concerned. Money coming in, Julia had refurnished the flat and requisitioned the part-time service of a maid.
Like the doctors of Harley Street who share houses, she shared the services of the maid with another flat-dweller, the maid coming to Julia after three o'clock to tidy up and to bring in afternoon tea and admit callers. She was quite well enough off to have employed a whole maid, but she was careful—her publishers could have told you that.
The bacon fried and breakfast over and[Pg 182] cleared away, Julia, with her hair still down, set to work at the cleared table before a pile of papers and account-books.
Never could you have imagined her the Julia of the other evening discoursing1 "literature" with Bobby.
She employed no literary agent, being that rare thing, a writer with an instinct for business. When you see vast publishing houses and opulent publishers rolling in their motor-cars you behold2 an optical illusion. What you see, or, rather, what you ought to see, is a host of writers without the instinct for business.
Julia, seated before her papers and turning them over in search of a letter, came just now upon the first letter she had ever received from a publisher, a very curt3, business-like communication saying that the publisher thought he saw his way to the publishing of her MS. entitled "The World at the Gate," and requesting an interview. With it was tied, as a sort of curiosity, the agreement that had been put before her to sign and which she had not signed.
It gave—or would have given—the publisher the copyright and half the American, serial4, dramatic and other rights. It offered ten per cent, on the published price of all copies sold after the first five hundred copies; it stipulated[Pg 183] that she should give him the next four novels on the same terms as an inducement to advertise the book properly—and it had drawn5 from Julia the prompt reply, "Send the typescript of my novel back at once."
So ended the first lesson.
Then, heartened by this evidently good opinion of her work, she had gone to another publisher? Not a bit—or at least, not at first. She had joined the Society of Authors—an act as necessary to the making of a successful author as baptism to the making of a Christian6. She had studied the publishing tribe, its ways and its works, discovered that they had no more love for books than greengrocers for potatoes, and that such a love, should it exist, would be unhealthy. For no seller of commodities ought to love the commodities he sells.
Then she had gone to a great impudently-advertising roaring trading-firm that dealt with books as men deal with goods in bulk, and, interviewing the manager as man to man, had driven her bargain, and a good one, too.
These people published poets and men of letters—but they respected Julia.
Free of creative work this morning, she could give her full attention to accounts and so forth7.
Then she turned to a little book which she sometimes scribbled8 in, and the contents of which she had a vague idea of some time publishing under a pseudonym9. It was entitled "Never," and it was not poetry. It was a thumb-book for authors, made up of paragraphs, some long, some short.
"Never dine with a publisher—luncheon10 is even worse."
"Never give free copies of books to friends, or lend them. The given book is not valued, the lent book is always lost—besides, the booksellers and lending libraries are your real friends."
"Never lower your price."
"Never attempt to raise your public."
"Never argue with a critic."
"Never be elated with good reviews, or depressed11 by bad reviews, or enraged12 by base reviews. The Public is your reviewer—It knows," and so on.
She shut up "Never," having included:
"Never give a plot away." Then she did her hair and thought of Bobby.
He had not fixed13 what hour he would call; that was a clause in the agreement she had forgotten—she, who was so careful about agreements, too.
Then she dressed and sat down to read "De Maupassant" and smoked a cigarette.
She had luncheon in the restaurant below stairs and then returned to the flat. Tea-time came and no Bobby.
She felt piqued14, put on her hat, and as the mountain would not come to Mohammed, Mohammed determined15 to go to the mountain.
Her memory held his address, "care of Tozer, B12, the Albany."
She walked to the Albany, arriving there a little after five o'clock, found B12, and climbed the stairs.
Tozer was in, and he opened the door himself.
"Is Mr. Ravenshaw at home?" asked Julia.
"No," said Tozer; "he's away, gone to the country."
"Gone to the country?"
"Yes; he went to-day."
Tozer had at once spotted16 Julia as the Lady of the Plot. He was as unconventional as she, and he wanted further acquaintance with this fascinator of his protégé.
"I think we are almost mutual17 acquaintances," said he; "won't you come in? My name is Tozer and Ravenshaw is my best friend.[Pg 186] I'd like to talk to you about him. Won't you come in?"
"Certainly," said the other. "My name is Delyse—I daresay you know it."
"I know it well," said Tozer.
"I don't mean by my books," said Julia, taking her seat in the comfortable sitting-room18, "but from Mr. Ravenshaw."
"From both," said Tozer, "and what I want to see is Ravenshaw's name as well known as yours some day. Bobby has been a spendthrift with his time, and he has lots of cleverness."
"Lots," said Julia.
Tozer, who had a keen eye for character, had passed Julia as a sensible person—he had never seen her in one of her love-fits—and she was a lady. Just the person to look after Bobby.
"He has gone down to the country to-day with an old gentleman, his uncle."
"I know all about him," said Julia.
"Bobby has told you, then?"
"Yes."
"About the attack of youth?"
"Yes."
"Well, a whole family party of them went off in a motor-car to-day. Bobby called here for his luggage and I went into Vigo Street and saw them off."
"How do you mean—a family party?"
"The youthful old gentleman and a big blonde man, and Bobby, and an old lady and a pretty girl."
Julia swallowed slightly.
"Relations?"
"No, French, I think, the ladies were. Quite nice people, I believe, though poor. The old gentleman had picked them up in some of his wanderings."
"Bob—Mr. Ravenshaw promised to see me to-day," said Julia. "We are engaged—I speak quite frankly—at least, as good as engaged, you can understand."
"Quite."
"He ought to have let me know," said she broodingly.
"He ought."
"Have they gone to Upton-on-Hill, do you know?"
"They have. The Rose Hotel."
Julia thought for awhile. Then she got up to go.
"If you want my opinion," said Tozer, "I think the whole lot want looking after. They seemed quite a pleasant party, but responsibility seemed somewhat absent; the old lady, charming though she was, seemed to me[Pg 188] scarcely enough ballast for so much youth."
"I understand," said Julia. Then she went off and Tozer lit a pipe.
The pretty young French girl was troubling him. She had charmed even him—and he knew Bobby, and his wisdom indicated that a penniless beauty was not the first rung of the ladder to success in life.
Julia, on the other hand, was solid. So he thought.
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收听单词发音
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1
discoursing
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| 演说（discourse的现在分词形式） | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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curt
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| adj.简短的，草率的 | |
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serial
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| n.连本影片，连本电视节目；adj.连续的 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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scribbled
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| v.潦草的书写( scribble的过去式和过去分词 )；乱画；草草地写；匆匆记下 | |
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pseudonym
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| n.假名，笔名 | |
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luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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enraged
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| 使暴怒( enrage的过去式和过去分词 )； 歜； 激愤 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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piqued
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| v.伤害…的自尊心( pique的过去式和过去分词 )；激起（好奇心） | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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spotted
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| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
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mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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sitting-room
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| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
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