Chapter M: N. to Mr. Dane, March 10

"'The sense of the dear!' as Peggotty said when Davy gave in his adhesion to her marriage on the ground of her being able to come and see him without cost of coach-hire.

"Apropos to what? Why, to your letter, of course, and a two months' session, and Dark Care sitting behind the horseman, in general.

"Isn't the tenth of March the Prince of Wales' wedding-day?

"The advantage of Halliday being in the Cabinet is, that I shall control you, you will control him, he will control Grant, and for once we shall be sure of having the government well administered.

"For my private fortunes, if I have the Lord High Chancellor for my judge, the co-Secretary of State for my fighting corps, and the Grand Vizier Suzerain for my reserve force, I shall at least fall into as well as in good company.

"Dr. Edwards used to say that if Mr. Springfield were not a sharp New England lawyer, he would be the first statesman of the day. _Mutato nomine de te fabula et pluribus unum et cetera._

"It seems impossible to get the kink of the law out of your brain. I can stand it very well because I have you only in spots, but poor F., who has the whole vast sandy plain destitute of vegetation on her hands, must have a life of it.

"Behold a few of the holes which I am about to punch in your case to let in light:--

"'We claim ten per cent.' Right.

"'H. says it is more than you were worth, and besides you agreed to less.' Very well put and very probable.

"'We reply, Ten per cent. is the least anybody is worth.' No we don't. We decline to enter into the question of worth, and demand the pound of flesh. They say, 'Very well, here is the bond;' and _then_ we say,--'You deceived us into our assent by,' etc., etc.

"As for their 'cruelty'--not a bit of it. It is legitimate warfare. They made my fame by advertising, they say. Very well. I reply, first, they didn't, and second, what if they did? If they made my sales by advertising, why did they not make A.'s in the same way? He has never yet received a penny for the B treatise. Why not C.'s books, of which he says all that have been sold a cat could carry, and so on. On the other hand, that they have done a great deal towards circulating them I readily admit. What do I pay them ninety per cent. for, I should like to know, if not that? Publishing is their business. That they have done more than another publisher would, I deny. They have simply transacted their business in the way they deemed most profitable to themselves. I deny that they have done anything for me out of the usual course of trade.

"About the advertising, I am indeed not fully persuaded.... Possibly the books have had their day and would have fallen off any way. A fortnight or so ago, perhaps more, Mr. Smith applied to me to write for his paper. I named my price. He rather _recalcitrated_. I wrote a letter that _tickled_ him, and he then proposed to come down and see me and make an arrangement. He was to be in Athens, 'the guest of his friend Mr.----!' But in Athens he heard from "two different sources that I was less popular than I had been," and so he beat a retreat to Corinth without seeing me at all. Isn't there a wheel within a wheel?

"Is this wearing away my soul? Then my soul must be like the liver of Tityus, forever spent, renewed forever.

"If you think I don't value money, send me down a hundred dollar note and see!

"The _manner_ of my making my claim is not material to the issue. No. But there is no use in wasting the time and temper of the men by unnecessary words.

"Now I beg you to disabuse your mind of the supposition that we are a court! The especial advantage of this way of settlement is, that we are not a court.... You will probably little relish this letter, but it is for your good."