"Yes. I have been looking forward to it with pleasure. But I thought it would be in manuscript. It is something you have had published?"
"My first attempt at anything in this line. It's a serial story and this is the initial instalment. You see, I had a good deal of leisure time on my hands when I was down at Mont-Mer and I've always wanted to try my luck with a pen. I call this 'A Brother of Bluebeard.'"
"That's a gruesome title, but excellently chosen if it's a mystery-story. I'm shivering already."
He settled himself with his back to the light and his profile toward her. "I may as well tell you at first that I am not bringing this out under my own name."
"Why not?"
"Because I wouldn't have felt quite free about writing it if I were standing out in the open."
"Oh, it's a true story?"
"No, I can hardly claim that for it. It's rather a fantastic plot as you will see. But every writer knows this, that when you first break into print whatever you write is supposed to be transcribed almost verbatim from actual experience, preferably your own experience. No matter how at variance with your own life-plot the story may be, the people who know you will leap to the conclusion that it is rooted in autobiography. Imagination is the very last thing that our friends are willing to allow us."
"What nom-de-plume do you use?"
"Ralph Regan. It's short and snappy and sounds as if it might be genuine, don't you think?"