The Story of the House of Cassell
And he took so little pride in the result of his efforts that he allowed five years to go by before issuing it as a book. He once said that he could amuse himself by re-reading all his other books, but could never give this a second reading. It was no doubt owing to the little interest he took in the task that he forgot to account for one of the four arrows, and had to be reminded of the omission by Mr. Dow, the proof-reader of Young Folks, in the following letter:
"To the Author.
"Dear Sir,—At the risk of incurring your displeasure, I venture to point out to you what may be an intentional omission but which, I think, is probably an oversight. There were four black arrows, to be used with deadly intent. Three have been accounted for. In this concluding instalment the fourth is not mentioned; nor is there any indication of the fate of Sir Oliver, for whom the fourth arrow is evidently intended. This has occurred to me all the more forcibly because Sir Oliver's dreadful terror of a violent death has been on more than one occasion so vividly represented.
"Believe me, Sir, to be, not your critic, but your servant,
Of this very important service Mr. Dow received the following generous acknowledgment:
"To the Reader.
"Dear Sir,—To the contrary, I thank you most cordially; indeed, the story having changed and run away from me in the course of writing, the dread fate that I had originally designed for Sir Oliver became impossible, and I had, I blush to say it, clean forgotten him.
"Thanks to you, Sir, he shall die the death. I enclose to-night slips 49, 50, 51; and to-morrow or next day, after having butchered the priest, I shall dispatch the rest.
"I must not, however, allow this opportunity to go by without once more thanking you—for I think we have, in a ghostly fashion, met before on the margin of proof—for the unflagging intelligence and care with which my MS. is read. I have a214
