General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1911 Original Publisher: Lippincott Subjects: American fiction Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: FOURTH CHAPTER PAULA ENCOUNTERS HER ADVERSARY WHO TURNS PROPHET AND TELLS OF A STARRY CHILD SOON TO BE BORN Paula went upstairs to the editorial rooms with Reifferscheid the following morning for Charter’s letter. This she carried into the city-office to be alone. Forenoon is the dead time of a morning newspaper. The place seemed still tired from the all-night struggle to spring a paper to the streets. She thrust up a window for fresh air and sat down in a reporter’s chair to read… . The letter was big with boyish delight.
When a man spends a couple of years growing and trimming a pile of stuff into a sizable book, he had written,
and the first of the important reviews comes in with such a message of enthusiasm, it is the heart’s ‘ well- done ’ long waited for. Beyond this, there was only a line or two about the book. It had been in the publisher’s hands six months, and he was cold to it now. The States had interested him, however, because there was an inclination in the article to look at his work to come. In fact, some of the thoughts of the reviewer, he wrote, were sympathetic with the subject- matter simmering in his mind. Naturally, the coincidence had thrilled him. Charter, believing that Reifferscheid had done the work, wrote with utmost freedom. This attracted Paula, as it gave her a glimpse of a certain fineness between men who admire each other. The issue was not closed… . She wanted to answerthe letter then and there at the reporter’s desk, but Reifferscheid knew she had not gone. He might come in – and laugh at her…