At the bottom of the page of quotations from the Gitâ is a footnote: "True perhaps but utterly unintelligible to the rabble."
It was not long after his marriage that turning a corner he saw Fame flitting ahead of him, smiling over her shoulder. The newspapers began to quote his witticisms, as for example:
Hostess—"Mr. Saltus, what character in fiction do you admire most?"
Saltus—"God."
His books, considered outrageous to a degree, began to sell like hot cakes. To quote again from a newspaper clipping of that day:
Depraved Customer—"Do you sell the books of Edgar Saltus?"
Virtuous Bookseller—"Sir, I keep Guy de Maupassant's, The Heptameron, and Zola's, but Saltus—never."
Edgar Saltus was made.