"
"Go on," I said, "I am perfectly charmed with my power of repressing
resentment."
"Therefore it was," he continued, "that I set to work to write the book
myself, founding it entirely upon your daily recitals. My plan was to
write as long as I found you were in the humor to talk, and, in fact, if
you lost interest in me as a listener I determined that I would then
declare what I had done, show you my work, and implore you, if you felt
like it, to give me enough subject matter to finish it.
"I have now stated my case, and I place it entirely in your hands. I
will give you what I have written, and if you choose to read it and do
not like it, you can throw it into the fire. The subject matter is
yours, and I have no rights over it. But if you think that the work
which you have decided to discontinue can be successfully carried on by
me, I shall be delighted to go ahead and finish it."
"Walkirk," said I, "you have the effrontery of a stone sphinx; but let
me see your manuscript."
He handed it to me, and during the rest of the morning, and for a great
part of the night, after I had returned in a late train from the city, I
read it. The next day I handed it to him.
"Walkirk," said I, "as my under-study go ahead and finish this book.
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