"
"How would this do?" he asked presently. "Suppose I go and see Mother
Anastasia this afternoon, and try and make her look at this matter from
a strictly business point of view. I can tell her that the sort of thing
you are doing is purely literature, that you can't keep such things out
of literature, and that the people who engage in the mechanical work of
literature cannot help running against those things at one time or
another. I can try to make her understand what an advantageous
connection this is, and what a great injury to the House of Martha it
would be if it should be broken off. I can tell her that it is not
improbable that you may take to writing as a regular business, and that
you may give profitable employment to the sisters for years and years.
There are a good many other things I might say, and you may be sure I
shall do my very best."
"Go," I said, "but be very careful about what you say. Don't make her
think that I am too anxious to retain this particular sister, but make
her understand that I do not wish to begin all over again with another
one. Also, do not insist too strongly on my desire to write a
love-story, but put it to her that when I plan out work of course I want
to do the work as I have planned it.
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