"I am afraid--" he resumed, rising and taking a white flower from one of
the vases on the table to pin in his button-hole--"that Miss Clare is
going to be a thorn in your side, my friend! A man rival in literature
is bad enough,--but a woman rival is too much to endure with any amount
of patience! However you may console yourself with the certainty that
_she_ will never get 'boomed,'--while you--thanks to my tender fostering
of the sensitive and high-principled McWhing, will be the one delightful
and unique 'discovery' of the press for at least one month, perhaps two,
which is about as long as any 'new star of the first magnitude' lasts in
the latter-day literary skies. Shooting-stars all of them!--such as poor
old forgotten Béranger sang of--
"les etoiles qui filent,
'Qui filent,--qui filent--et disparaissent!'"
"Except--Mavis Clare!" I said.
"True! Except Mavis Clare!" and he laughed aloud,--a laugh that jarred
upon me because there was a note of mockery in it--"She is a small
fixture in the vast heavens,--or so it seems--revolving very contentedly
and smoothly in her own appointed orbit,--but she is not and never will
be attended by the brilliant meteor-flames that will burst round _you_,
my excellent fellow, at the signal of McWhing! Fie Geoffrey!--get over
your sulks! Jealous of a woman! Be ashamed,--is not woman the inferior
creature?, and shall the mere spectre of a feminine fame cause a
five-fold millionaire to abase his lofty spirit in the dust? Conquer
your strange fit of the spleen, Geoffrey, and join me at dinner!"
He laughed again as he left the room,--and again his laughter irritated
me. When he had gone, I gave way to the base and unworthy impulse that
had for some minutes been rankling within me, and sitting down at my
writing table, penned a hasty note to the editor of a rather powerful
magazine, a man whom I had formerly known and worked for. He was aware
of my altered fortunes and the influential position I now occupied, and
I felt confident he would be glad to oblige me in any matter if he
could. My letter, marked '_private and confidential_' contained the
request that I might be permitted to write for his next number, an
anonymous 'slashing' review of the new novel entitled 'Differences' by
Mavis Clare.