You are the last man to have anything to do with journalism.' 'If I appealed to my publishers, could they help me ?' 'I don't see how.

They would simply say: Write a book and we'll buy it.' 'Yes, there's no help but that.' 'If only you were able to write short stories, Fadge might be useful.' 'But what's the use?
I suppose I might get ten guineas, at most, for such a story.

I need a couple of hundred pounds at least.

Even if I could finish a three-volume book, I doubt if they would give me a hundred again, after the failure of "The Optimist"; no, they wouldn't.' 'But to sit and look forward in this way is absolutely fatal, my dear fellow.

Get to work at your two-volume story.