He told himself that he had been let off fairly easily, though he winced considerably under the adulation of the _Daily Mercury_, and found himself breathing most freely when least was said about him.

The day of his triumph in the _Mercury_ he made monstrous cowslip balls, and thought that the world had never been sufficiently congratulated upon possessing the ideal simplicity of children.
Thereafter for two days nothing came, and he began to grow restless.

Then the _Decade_ made its weekly slovenly appearance, without a wrapper.

He opened it with the accumulated interest of forty-eight hours, turned to "Fine Arts," and girded himself to receive the _Decade's_ ideas.

He read the first sentence twice--the article opened curiously, for the _Decade_.