R. A.—Well, I’ll be damned!

C. P.—Sure!—if you find a sentimentalist who will publish your book. He will do the damning.

II

Editor.—Glad to see you, sir. Take a chair.

Visitor.—I am the proprietor of The Prosperous Monthly.

Ed.—Take two chairs.

Vis.—I called to congratulate you on the extraordinary success of The Waste Basket. I should not have thought it possible for you to break into our field and play this game as well as we. And with so fantastic a title!

Ed.—For my success I am greatly indebted to yourself.

Vis.—Not if I know it: we have fought you, tooth and nail.

Ed.—Oh, that is all right; if it had been expedient we should have fought back. Our prosperity depended on yours.