Publisher. Well, scarcely. You see the Londoners did not take up your book very warmly; but we have made an arrangement to dispose of the rest of the issue in the country at a considerable reduction.
Author. And An English Hamlet?
Publisher. We shall be glad to produce on the same terms!
[Exeunt Author and Publisher severally.
Scene III.—Interior of the Circulating Library at Slocum-Pogis-on-the-Stodge. Author and Female Librarian discovered.
Author. Well, if you haven't got the popular novels I have already mentioned, I will have a book by Rider Haggard, Stevenson, Meredith, or Rudyard Kipling.
Librarian.. All out, Sir. Won't you have something else?
Author. Well, an amusing volume of travels or recollections. Can you recommend one?
Librarian. We did have several books of that kind in the Season, Sir, but just now our stock is a little low.