Hardwill? he thought. Is he a large man, with a heavy watch-chain, or a thin, sky-rockety piece of humanity, dressed in black, and tipped off with red hair? Was he a cold, cast-iron man, like Flint? or a simple, sorrowful one, like Snarle that was? But this last idea melted of itself. How could the famous publisher resemble the poor, un.o.btrusive Snarle? He, Mr.
Hardwill, who received notes from the great Hiawatha, and hob-n.o.bbed with Knickerbocker Irving; he, who owned a phial of yellow sand, which had been taken from a scorching desert with an unp.r.o.nounceable name, and presented to him by the Oriental Bayard; he, who chatted with genial Mr.
Sparrow-gra.s.s--G.o.d bless him!--(Sparrow-gra.s.s,) and joked with Orpheus Stoddard,--he like simple Snarle? Pooh!
"Is Mr. Hardwill in?" asked Mortimer. He came near adding, "the great publisher."
The clerk, to whom his eyes looked, said he believed he was, and went on calling off from a slip of paper:
""Murdered Milkmaid," two copies; "b.l.o.o.d.y Hatchet," twelve copies; "The Seducer"s Victim," thirty copies; "The Young Mother," five copies; "The Deranged Daughter," seven copies; "Hifiluten and _other_ poems," one copy."
"Can I speak with him?" ventured Mortimer, as the clerk, who was calling off the _criminal literature_, paused for breath.
""The Merry Maniacs," ten copies--Yes, sir; but he"s engaged. Wait awhile,"
continued the clerk, as Mortimer turned to go. ""The Wizard of Wehawkin,"
six copies; "The Phantom of Philadelphia," twelve copies, etc., etc."
So our author seated himself on a case of books, and looked at the wall of volumes which encompa.s.sed him. Somehow or another, it suggested the Great Wall of China and the Cordilleras. He could give no reason why. No more can I. Perhaps he felt that light literature, paradoxical as it may seem, is always heavy, and so his mind ran on the prodigious freaks of man and nature.
After the clerk had finished calling off from the slip of paper, that promising young gentleman suddenly discovered that Mr. Hardwill was _not_ engaged, and offered to conduct our friend into his august presence.
Mortimer gathered up his heart, as it were, and his loosened ma.n.u.script at the same moment--"Her heart and morning broke together!"--and followed the clerk through an avenue of literature, to a snug inner office--that literary Sebastopol, which is forever being stormed by seedy poets and their allies, historians, romancers, and strong-minded Eves.
Could it be possible?
Was that middle-sized, dark-eyed, light-haired, pleasant-looking man the Napoleon of publishers? However, there was something shrewd in his dark eye, or rather eyes--for he had two of them--and a certain expression of the mouth, which seemed full of dealings with the world.
"Is this Mr. Hardwill?" asked Mortimer.
"Yes, sir. Will you be seated?"
"I have a romance," commenced Mortimer, with hesitation, "which I would offer you for publication. I have written it carefully, and I think it possesses several new features----"
Here his voice broke down, for he felt those dark, scrutinizing eyes in his face; besides, the intense attention with which he was listened to disconcerted him. Mr. Hardwill came to his relief.
"What is the t.i.tle of your book?"
"It is called "Goldwood.""
"That is not happy."
"No?"
"No," said Mr. Hardwill, "it should be something striking--something to catch the eye in an advertis.e.m.e.nt. For instance, the--the----"
"Frantic Father," suggested Mortimer, quietly; and he gazed at the carpet to keep from smiling.
Mr. Hardwill eyed him, and displayed his white teeth. There was a little satire in our author"s remark which pleased Mr. H., who could not be hired to read the spasmodic books which he published. It was policy in him to cater for that largest cla.s.s of readers whose tastes are morbid or inflamed, and he did so.
Mortimer had thrown aside his timidity. He gave a concise sketch of the plot, touching here and there on some supposed-to-be felicitous incident, and grew so autorially eloquent over his romance, that the careful Mr.
Hardwill requested Mortimer to leave his ma.n.u.script with him, saying:
"I cannot give you much hope. I have more books ready for press than I can well attend to. If you will call on me the latter part of next week, you shall have my decision."
With these words, spoken in an off-hand, business-like way, Mr. Hardwill made a bow, which said, as kindly as such a thing _can_ be said, "You needn"t stay any longer."
Mortimer returned his bland smile frankly, and retired, though he would fain have called Mr. Hardwill"s attention to that delightful and exciting scene in which Mr. Adine St. Clair meets Arabella Clementina after an estrangement of two weeks! but he didn"t. He again threaded his way through the labyrinth of literature, and the last sound which fell on his ear, as he turned from the book-store into the street, was,
""The Ruined Cigar Girl," twenty copies!"
"What on earth could anybody want of a "Ruined Cigar Girl," or a "Young Mother?"" and Mortimer laughed outright.
The wand of Prospero is neither more cunning nor more powerful than the pen of a well bred author. It creates something out of nothing, (more frequently nothing out of something), changes time, place, and human nature; it lifts up the blue roofing of ocean, and gives you a glimpse of fish-life; and deeper still, shows you the coral forests of the Naiads, and their aquatic palaces. It draws back the curtain of cloud-land, and feeds your fancy with forms that never have been, and never will be; summons spirits from the air, and gives melodious voices to all vernal things.
Pleasant magician that waves this wand! what curious people are walking in the chambers of your brain! What dreams are yours, and what cruel cuts this real world sometimes gives you! You have no right to be here, poor devil!
You are somewhat misplanted; you belong to some sphere between earth and heaven, and not very near either. That such a place is provided for you I am certain. There it is that all your books will run through countless editions; there it is you can afford to hire some one to write your autograph for besieging admirers, and feed, as you should,
"On the roses, and lay in the lilies of life."
But I was speaking of pen-magic. It is not my present mood to do anything fantastical in that way. I only wish to give you a sight of Mr. Flint, as he appeared one afternoon some months after Mortimer had left his office.
He was standing in that inner-room of his counting-house to which I have introduced the reader. I change my mind--he was not standing. He had just thrown himself into a chair, in which he did not seem at all easy.
I take peculiar delight in placing Mr. Flint in uncomfortable positions.
He was surprised, alarmed, and angry. He missed the forged check and the morocco case which he had watched so many years. That they had been purloined, he could not doubt, and his keen thought fell on Mortimer. The loss of the check troubled him; he liked to look at it occasionally, for Snarle"s sake; but the necklace--that gave him strange alarm.
"Snake!" he hissed, "you have crawled into my affairs, and I"ll tread on you--tread on you and kill you! You stole the check to save Snarle"s name; and the necklace--why did you steal that? Was it valuable? Yes, that is it.
I"ll grind you in the dust. I"ll put you in a prison, and let your brainless father look at you through the bars!"
This humane idea caused Mr. Flint to rub his dry hands, and chuckle violently.
"But"--here Mr. Flint"s countenance fell. "If I do this, won"t Walters ruin me with that unfortunate letter? O, I was a fool to write it; yet he would have murdered me if I had not."
And Mr. Flint thought and thought.
To obtain the letter was impossible. Walters might have left the city; even if he had not, there was a method in his madness which Flint knew he could not circ.u.mvent. He could not lose such a chance of crushing Mortimer as presented itself; and yet to attempt it while Walters had possession of the letter was unwise.
Mr. Flint was in a brown study.
He walked up and down his sanctum solemnly, neglecting to watch Tim and the book-keeper who had succeeded Mortimer. An half hour pa.s.sed, and still he continued his walk and reverie, without any visible intention of stopping.
His face lights up; he rubs his knuckles with ecstacy. He has got it! got it at last. He will have Mortimer arrested; he will have Mortimer"s name suppressed, or give the newspapers a fict.i.tious one. This will shield him from Walters, whose heart he will wring some of these days. Ah! that will be revenge.
It may strike the ingenious reader as strange that Mortimer, having charge of Flint & Snarle"s books, never came across his father"s name. This would have been the case, and somewhat interfered with our novel, if Mortimer, when he applied for a clerkship with the firm, had not given Mr. Flint all the particulars of his life. For reasons best known to himself, Mr. Flint took every opportunity to strengthen Mortimer in the belief of his father"s death, and every precaution to keep Walters from meeting him. Once, indeed, they stood face to face in the office; but, taking into consideration the number of years they had been separated, and the circ.u.mstances under which they met, it would have been most strange if a recognition had taken place.
As to Mr. Snarle, being profoundly ignorant of Mortimer"s early history, he could throw no light on Mortimer"s mind; and everything worked to Flint"s satisfaction. Every circ.u.mstance seemed to mould itself to his will.
There is an evil spirit, and a very powerful one, that holds the wires which move some of us puppets. The good are made to take the humblest seats in the world"s Synagogue, and the wily and the evil-hearted are clothed in purple, fed on honey, and throned in the highest places. There will be a surprising revolution some of these times.
As Mr. Sparrow-gra.s.s would say, a revolution is "a good thing to have in the country."