“So much the better! So much the better!” said Kane. “Robert Elsmere antagonized much more than half its readers by its religious positions. But that wasn’t what I was trying to get at. I was thinking about how some of the phenomenally successful books hung fire at first.”
“Ah, that interests me as the author of a phenomenally successful book that is still hanging fire,” sighed Ray.
Kane smiled approval of his attempt to play with his pain, and went on: “You know that Gates Ajar, which sold up into the hundred thousands, was three months selling the first fifteen hundred.”
“Is that so?” Ray asked. “A Modern Romeo has been three weeks selling the first fifteen.” He laughed, and Mr. Brandreth with him; but the fact encouraged him, and he could see that it encouraged the publisher.
“We won’t speak of Mr. Barnes of New York”—
“Oh no! Don’t!” cried Ray.
“You might be very glad to have written it on some accounts, my dear boy,” said Kane.
“That’s neither here nor there. I haven’t seen Little Lord Fauntleroy. But I wanted to speak of Looking Backward. Four months after that was published, the first modest edition was still unsold.”
Kane rose. “I just dropped in to impart these facts to your publisher, in case you and he might be getting a little impatient of the triumph which seems to be rather behind time. I suppose you’ve noticed it? These little disappointments are not suffered in a corner.”