Concerning Isabel Carnaby

by Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler

"You are very fond of power, Paul," said his mother.

Paul smiled sadly. "It is all that is left to me, you see; and a man must have something to set his heart upon."

One morning, when Paul was the last to appear at the breakfast-table, Joanna greeted him with the cry: "There is a letter for you from the office of The Hours, and I am sure it is to say that the appointment is yours."

Paul broke the seal and found it was a communication from Sir John Shelford. It was a kind enough letter, and full of regrets; but Sir John said that he could not conscientiously give a post of such far-reaching influence as that of editor of The Hours to the man who wrote Shams and Shadows. Paul's political views, he added, were his own; Paul's literary style and knowledge, all that could be desired; nevertheless it would not be right for the man who had more to do, perhaps, with the forming of public opinion in England than any other, to be held responsible for the unsound political teaching and the untrue philosophy of life which were found in the pages of Shams and Shadows. Sir John went on to speak in most flattering terms of Some Better Thing, and to say that such a book placed its author in the first rank of living men of letters, "but," he continued, "you are too much a man of the world to need telling that litera scripta manet, and that what a man has written he has written;" and he showed that, because of Shams and Shadows, Paul could never realize his ambition and become the editor of The Hours.

There was silence for a few moments after Paul had ceased reading, and Mrs. Seaton began to cry quietly behind the coffee-pot.

"Never mind, mother," he said manfully, though his face was pale and tired, "it is no good making a trouble of things. I don't deny that it is a disappointment, but I can bear it all right if only you won't let it make you unhappy."

"But it is so hard," sobbed Mrs. Seaton, "that a man should be punished for a thing of which he repented long ago."

"But the world never forgives," sighed the minister; "it is only God and our mothers that can do that."

"I think that Shelford is an old beast," cried Joanna warmly, "and I hope that the new editor, whoever he is, will ruin the paper, and cause all the Shelfords to die in the workhouse."

Paul tried to smile. "I cannot help seeing that Shelford is right. The editor of The Hours must be above suspicion, from a literary and political point of view, or else the prestige of the paper will go down at once. Men in positions of great influence should never have anything to explain away."