THE OLD STORY.
A black-eyed little woman was installed in the house. Accepting her
husband's story and her own statement, her life had not been wholly
respectable, but she brought refinement into the animal cage. A new
carpet lay soft and bright upon the floor. The windows, now curtained,
no longer looked like browless eyes staring into cold vacancy. The
dinner table lost the air and the appearance of a feed trough. Not in
words nor in sighs, but in a hundred ways, she proved the sincerity of
her repentance.
The autumn lasted a long time, and wise men said that it would end in a
snarl, and it did, for winter came in a night, like a pack of howling
wolves. But their cold teeth did not bite through the walls of Milford's
sitting-room. Black eyes had looked after the work of a carpenter and a
paper-hanger.
The Professor, thin-clad as he was, welcomed the change in the weather.
The cold that made a dog scamper forced a new energy upon the mind. He
had found that his book required the aid of rain and snow and every
trick that the air could turn. One day he could write better because a
tree in front of his window had been stripped of its leaves. One night
the rattle of sleet graced a period that he had bungled under the
energy-lacking influence of a full moon. This was but a prideful
conceit, for the fact was that, like nearly every impractical man, he
wrote with great ease at all times. Milford had faith in the outcome of
his work, and often visited him at night. And the indorsement of so
shrewd a man had encouraged Mrs. Dolihide and Miss Katherine. Sometimes
the young woman would read a chapter. Once she said: "Ma, this is really
good." It was not much for a daughter to say, but the Professor had been
so repeated a failure that even a cool compliment was warm to him. His
wife accepted the daughter's judgment. It is possible that she saw a
vision of new gowns and a better house.
One evening, after welcoming Milford into his workshop, the scholar
declared himself on the verge of a great success. He was arrayed in an
old dressing-gown, with a rope tied monkishly about his loins. His
fingers were stained with ink, "the waste juice of thought," he said. "I
should now be the happiest of men, and I am, but, my dear boy, it is not
nearly so easy as I expected. I find that I cannot cut, slash, and
piece; I must absorb and write, and what I thought could be done in a
few weeks, will take months to perform. At first I thought it would be
well to enter into correspondence with the publishers, but I put it off
till now I have decided to surprise them with the work itself. Ah, work,
work, true balm to the restless soul! I was never really happy until I
took up this brightening task; I was never so serious; I was never
before able to understand the necessity of my previous training, my
struggles and disappointments. But now all is clear. How is everything
with you?"
"All right. Everything over my way is as neat as----"
"A new gold dollar," suggested the Professor.
"Yes, and my house is as comfortable as a fur-lined nest."
"And at a time, too, when you are thinking about giving it up."
"That's so. But I've got to go out West to see a man, and then I may
return to this neighborhood."
"Are you going to take any one with you on your trip?"
"No, I'm going alone."
"On important business, I presume?"
"Very; so important that all my work here has been toward that end. How
long before you'll have this thing done?"
"I am working toward an end," the Professor said, smiling, "but I cannot
work toward a date. But, to approximate, I should think about the middle
of March."
"Don't know but I bother you, coming over so often."
"My dear boy, you help me. You are a constant encouragement. Ah, you are
a double encouragement, for you encourage them." He pointed downward.
"And that is the greatest good you could do me."
They talked a long time about the book, the sure winner, and as Milford
was taking his leave, the Professor followed him to the head of the
stairway. "My dear boy," he said, putting his hand on his visitor's
shoulder, "you must at last perceive that I am earnest."
"I know it."
"I hope you believe so, for I am. I may be odd--I may be amusing to the
thoughtless, but to the wise I am serious."
And it was thus, during all the cold months of his work, pleading to his
friends to construe him seriously. Sometimes he would check his
enthusiasm, fearful that his dancing spirits might make him appear
grotesque. But the neighbors, among their rattling milk-cans, laughed at
him, his walk, his gestures, the tones of his voice. One morning near
the end of March, he got on the train, a precious bundle hugged under
his arm. He had spent half the night with Milford, and had come away
strengthened by the strong man. Now he flew toward the journey-end of
hope. A brakeman on the milk train had heard the farmers laugh at him,
and felt at liberty to poke fun at him.
"Got your crop under your arm?" he asked.
The Professor bristled. "If it were the straw of wild oats three times
threshed, it would still hold more value than the chaff that blows about
in your empty skull. Keep your place, which means--distance."
He was serious; he felt it and gloated over it with a solemn pride. But
before the train reached the city he begged the fellow's pardon. "I am
worn out with hard work," he said, "and I hope you will forget my
harshness."
Cabmen bellowed at him as he passed out of the station, and ragged boys
guyed him as he walked along the street. He had a list of the
subscription book publishers, and decided to submit his favor to the
nearest one. The elevator boy put him off on the wrong floor. A
scrub-woman looked up and leered at him. "Poverty, like anger, hath a
privilege," he mused. He found the publisher's quarters, but waited a
long time before he was admitted to the presence of the manager. The
great man was closeted with a book agent. In the subscription book house
the author is nothing; the agent everything. The manager has been an
agent, or perhaps a "fake" advertising man. He hates an author; he hated
the Professor at sight, and flouted when he learned that the scholar had
brought a book. What an insult! The idea of bringing a book to a
publishing house! The Professor attempted to explain the scope of his
work. The manager drew back. "No need to unwrap it," he said. "We've got
more books now than we can sell. Say," he bawled, to some one outside
his den, "tell Ritson I want to see him before he goes."
"I thought," began the Professor, bowing;--but the manager shut him off.
"We do our own thinking," he said.
"Well, sir, I shall bid you good-morning."
"Yes. Say," he shouted, "tell Bruck I want to see him, too."
The list was followed, and a night of sorrow fell at the end of a
heart-breaking day. Not in all instances had the publishers been gruff;
some had spoken kindly, one had looked at the manuscript, and then had
shown the Professor a bank of books written on the same line. At last,
worn out with serving as pall-bearer to his own dead spirit, he offered
the book for enough money to pay his life insurance. The publisher shook
his head. Old, old story, gathering mold.