“Well, why didn’t you do it?” inquired Miss Crabb with a ring of impatience in her voice, “if you had you might have made a hit. You might have attracted some attention.”
Dufour laughed heartily, as if he had caught some occult humor from the young woman’s words.
“I did write it,” said Crane retrospectively, “and sent it to George Dunkirk & Co.”
“Well?” sighed Miss Crabb with intense interest.
“Well,” replied Crane, “they rejected the MS. without reading it.”
Again Dufour laughed, as if at a good joke.
“George Dunkirk & Co.!” cried Guilford Ferris, the romancer, “George Dunkirk & Co.! They are thieves. They have been making false reports on copyright to me for five years or more!”
Dufour chuckled as if his jaws would fall off, and finally with a red face and gleaming humorous eyes got up from the chair he was filling on the veranda, and went up to his room.
The rest of the company looked at one another inquiringly.