very  grateful,  but  I  do  not  believe  that  nil
these  put  together,  or  indeed  any  possible
favor  the  world  might  mete  to  me,  would
impart  a  tithe  of  the  enjoyment  1  felt  on
hearing  that  Harry  Lorrequer  had  been
liked  by  the  public,  and  that  they  had
asked  for  more  of  him.
If  this  sort  of  thing  amuses  them, though!
I,  I  can  go  on  forever  ;  and  believing  this
to  he  true.  1  launched  forth  with  all  that
prodigal  waste  of  material  which,  if  it  forms
one  of  the  reasons  of  the  success,  is,  strictly
speaking,  one  among  the  many  demerits
of  this  story.  That  I  neither  husbanded
my  resources,  nor  imagined  that  they  ever
could  fail  me,  were  not  my  only  mistakes  ;
and  I  am  tempted  to  show  howlittie  1  under-
stood of  the  responsibilities  of  authorship
by  repeating  what  I  have  told  elsewhere,
an  incident  of  the  last  number  of  Harry
Lorrequer.  The  MSS.  which  contained
the  conclusion  of  the  story  had  been  sent
through  the  Foreign  Office  bag  from  Brus-
sels, and  possibly  had  been  mistaken  for  a
dispatch.  At  all  events,  like  King  Theo-
dore's letter,  it  had  been  thrown  to  one
side  and  forgotten.  In  this  strait  my  pub-
lishers wrote  to  me  in  a  strain  that  the
trade  alone  knows  how  to  employ  toward
an  unknown  author.
