CHAPTER III
FROM GARRET TO GARDEN
“Celestina, what do you think this is?” Waving something that crackled in mid air.
“A piece of paper,” said Celestina from her place on the hearth.
“Paper!” scoffed Straws. “It’s that which Horace calls a handmaid, if you know how to use it; a mistress, if you do not––money! It is––success, the thing which wrecks more lives than cyclones, fires and floods! We were happy enough before this came, weren’t we, Celestina?”
The girl nodded her head, a look of deep anxiety in her eyes.
“Oh, why did the critics so damn the book it fairly leaped to popularity!” went on the bard. “Why did they advise me to learn a trade? to spoil no more reams of paper? To spoil reams of paper and get what––this little bit in return!”
“Is it so very much money?” asked Celestina.
“An enormous amount––one thousand dollars! 413 And the worst of it is, my publishers write there may be more to come.”