The result, unhappily, was not correspondent with the efforts.
Alfred Yule had made a recognisable name among the critical writers of the day; seeing him in the title-lists of a periodical, most people knew what to expect, but not a few forbore the cutting open of the pages he occupied.

He was learned, copious, occasionally mordant in style; but grace had been denied to him.

He had of late begun to perceive the fact that those passages of Marian's writing which were printed just as they came from her pen had merit of a kind quite distinct from anything of which he himself was capable, and it began to be a question with him whether it would not be advantageous to let the girl sign these compositions.

A matter of business, to be sure--at all events in the first instance.
For a long time Marian had scarcely looked up from the desk, but at this moment she found it necessary to refer to the invaluable Larousse.

As so often happened, the particular volume of which she had need was not upon the shelf she turned away, and looked about her with a gaze of weary disappointment.