The contract date for the issue went by, and there was no explanation of this.

Time drifted along and still there was no explanation.

I was lecturing all over the country; and about thirty times a day, on an average, I was trying to answer this conundrum: "When is your book coming out ?" I got tired of inventing new answers to that question, and by and by I got horribly tired of the question itself.

Whoever asked it became my enemy at once, and I was usually almost eager to make that appear.
As soon as I was free of the lecture-field I hastened to Hartford to make inquiries.

Bliss said that the fault was not his; that he wanted to publish the book but the directors of his Company were staid old fossils and were afraid of it.