book had nothing to do with the advisability of printing it. Herewith is appended a specimen or two from Felix Kennaston's correspondence.
Dapley & Pildriff—"We have carefully
read your story, 'The Audit at Storisende,' which
you kindly submitted to us. It is needless for us
to speak of the literary quality of the story: it is
in fact exquisitely done, and would delight a very
limited circle of readers trained to appreciate such
delicate productions. But that class of readers is
necessarily small, and the general reader would,
we fear, fail to recognize the book's merit and be
attracted to it. For this reason we do not feel—and
we regret to confess it—that the publication
of this book would be a wise business enterprise
for us to undertake. We wish that we could, in
justice to you and ourselves, see the matter in another
light. We are returning the manuscript to
you, and we remain, with appreciation of your
courtesy, etc."
Paige Ticknor's Sons—"We have given very careful consideration to your story, 'The Audit at Storisende,' which you kindly submitted to us. We were much interested in this romance, for it goes without saying that it is marked with high literary quality. But we feel that it would
