If either had been susceptible to reason, and had got up a case against their author, the publishers declared that Mr.Courtland's book would not have had a chance with "Revised Versions." To be sure they admitted that the report that Mr.Holland had been thrown over by the lady who had promised to marry him had given a jerk forward to the sales; but when Mr.George Holland had been so idiotically blind to his best interests and (incidentally) the best interests of his publishers, as to contradict this suggestion of incipient martyrdom, and thus an excellent advertisement had been lost, and everyone was, in a week or two, talking about "The Quest of the Meteor-Bird," while only a few continued shaking their heads over "Revised Versions." Meantime, however, Mr.Courtland thought it well to call upon Mr.Ayrton in order to thank him for his kindness in replying in the House of Commons so effectively to the questions put to the various ministers by Mr.Apthomas; and Mr.Ayrton had asked Mr.Courtland to dinner, and Mr.
Courtland had accepted the invitation, Miss Ayrton begging Mrs.Linton to be of the party, and Mrs.Linton yielding to her petition without demur..