Surely not at your age?'
'I'm afraid there have been such poor fellows. Think how often
one hears of hopeful beginnings, new reputations, and then--you
hear no more. Of course it generally means that the man has gone
into a different career; but sometimes, sometimes--'
'What?'
'The abyss.' He pointed downward. 'Penury and despair and a
miserable death.'
'Oh, but those men haven't a wife and child! They would struggle
--'
'Darling, they do struggle. But it's as if an ever-increasing
weight were round their necks; it drags them lower and lower. The
world has no pity on a man who can't do or produce something it
thinks worth money. You may be a divine poet, and if some good
fellow doesn't take pity on you you will starve by the roadside.
Society is as blind and brutal as fate. I have no right to
complain of my own ill-fortune; it's my own fault (in a sense)
that I can't continue as well as I began; if I could write books
as good as the early ones I should earn money. For all that, it's
hard that I must be kicked aside as worthless just because I
don't know a trade.
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