If you want it you must take the risk.

But, my dear Alden, you will be investing in a man's heart--which may be a fortune or a folly.

Why, I ought to have seen--and far back in my brain I did see--that the character of Charley Steele was a type, an idiosyncrasy of modern life, a resultant of forces all round us, and that he would demand space in which to live and tell his story to the world....

And behold with what joy I follow him, not only lovingly but sternly and severely, noting him down as he really is, condoning naught, forgiving naught, but above all else, understanding him--his wilful mystification of the world, his shameless disdain of it, but the old law of interrogation, of sad yet eager inquiry and wonder and 'non possumus' with him to the end." This letter was evidently written in December, 1899, and the other went to Mr.Alden on the 7th August, 1900; therefore, eight or nine months later.

The work had gone well.