"And I must read them?"
"If you wish to write novels, you must not only read them, you must get them off by heart."
"Why, you frighten me! I should not be able to write a word for two or three years!"
"Oh! longer than that, or you will write ignorantly."
"Oh, my God! what a lot of time I have lost!"
"You must retrieve it."
"You will aid me, will you not?"
"What about the office?"
"Oh! I will read and study at night; I will work at the office, and we can have a chat from time to time...."