AUTHOR (DEFERENTIALLY). I have a really capital idea for a work
of fiction, on a subject which I believe to be quite original.
What--ahem!--are you prepared to offer for the copyright?
_Publisher._ Couldn't think of making an offer till we saw the work.
It might turn out to be worth nothing at all.
_Author._ Nothing at all! But you forget how my fame----
_Publisher._ Disappeared when we were obliged to charge the public
six shillings for a story of yours about the size of an average tract.
Other writers have come to the front, you know. Still, if there's
anything in your novel, when it's finished, we should, I daresay,
be prepared to offer you a couple of guineas down, and a couple more
when--say--a thousand copies had been sold. Is it a bargain?
_Author_ (_sadly_). I suppose it must be! Yet I can hardly be said to
be _paid_ for my work.
_Publisher._ Perhaps not. But you can be said to be _paid out!_
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[Illustration: "THE FEMALE OSTRICH AT THE ZOO IS DEAD."]
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