A few days after this they had a visit from Milvain. He came
about ten o'clock in the evening.
'I'm not going to stay,' he announced. 'But where's my copy of
"Margaret Home"? I am to have one, I suppose?'
'I have no particular desire that you should read it,' returned
Reardon.
'But I HAVE read it, my dear fellow. Got it from the library on
the day of publication; I had a suspicion that you wouldn't send
me a copy. But I must possess your opera omnia.'
'Here it is. Hide it away somewhere.--You may as well sit down
for a few minutes.'
'I confess I should like to talk about the book, if you don't
mind. It isn't so utterly and damnably bad as you make out, you
know. The misfortune was that you had to make three volumes of
it. If I had leave to cut it down to one, it would do you credit.
The motive is good enough.'
'Yes. Just good enough to show how badly it's managed.'
Milvain began to expatiate on that well-worn topic, the evils of
the three-volume system.
'A triple-headed monster, sucking the blood of English novelists.
One might design an allegorical cartoon for a comic literary
paper.
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