Then, the second envelope being opened, Maggie read aloud again. The letter was longer, and I cannot recall it precisely: but it was very nearly as follows:
"DEAR MADAM,—I can scarcely offer to give an opinion about your writing, unless I see a specimen. If you like to send me a few pages, I will tell you honestly what I think. That is all I can do: and my opinion need not settle the matter for you finally. You may have enough of the gift to be worth cultivating: and if so, I may be able to give you two or three suggestions as to the cultivation needed. From the style of your letter, I should judge that you are very young: and that a considerable amount of preparation would be needed, before you could enter the lists of authorship, with the least hope of success.
"Choose one dozen or twenty MS. pages of your best, as a fair specimen.—I am, yours truly—
"LETITIA GRAHAM."
Maggie did not quite know what to make of this. She read it aloud a second time, commenting on each sentence, and evidently agreeing with Denham in his estimate of successful authoresses as "very odd customers!" But on the whole gratification won the day. For Miss Graham had not seen Maggie's last half-finished story. That was a consoling thought. When she had, it would of course make all the difference. She only wrote now to Maggie as she might write to—anybody!
"Do you mean to stop writing, if Miss Graham tells you?" demanded Thyrza.
Maggie looked astonished. "No. Why should I?" she asked.
"I don't know. It doesn't seem much use to ask for advice, unless you mean to follow it."
"I didn't ask her if I ought to write. I asked her what was the best way of getting into print."
If more were needed, Nona's remark supplied it:
"And of course, if she is a nice person, she'll tell you how, Maggie dear."
August 18. Tuesday.—This evening, after supper, I found that an excursion to Gurglepool was planned for to-morrow. Thyrza alluded to it, in evident unconsciousness that the matter had been concealed from me; and Maggie then explained. The party would walk, not drive, starting directly after lunch. Elfie, not being well enough for the fatigue, would of course stay behind under my guardianship: and Thyrza, having been before, could act as guide to the rest. Mr. Stockmoor had explained to Denham all about the short-cut over the hills.