Up to this time his writings had consisted of short contributions, chiefly of sketches, each intended to stand by itself in the periodical to which it was sent.

_Barry Lyndon_ had hitherto been the longest; but that and _Catherine Hayes_, and the _Hoggarty Diamond_, though stories continued through various numbers, had not as yet reached the dignity,--or at any rate the length,--of a three-volume novel.

But of late novels had grown to be much longer than those of the old well-known measure.

Dickens had stretched his to nearly double the length, and had published them in twenty numbers.

The attempt had caught the public taste and had been pre-eminently successful.