secon' thing--if not firs'--is guarantee! They mus' pay so much profit
in advance. Else it be better to publish without a publisher, and with
advertisement' front and back! Tiffany, Royal Baking-Powder, Ivory
Soap it Float'! Ten thousand dolla' the page that _Ladies' 'Ome
Journal_ get', and if we get even ten dolla' the page--I know a man
what make that way three hundred dolla'!"

"He make that net or gross?" some one asked.

"Ah! I think, not counting his time _sol_-iciting those
advertisement', he make it _nearly_ net."

Chester made show of breaking in and three speakers at once begged him
to proceed: "How much of a book," he asked Mme. Castanado, "will the
manuscript make? How long is it?"

She looked falteringly to her husband: "'Tis about a foot long, nine
inch' wide. Marcel, pazz that to monsieur."

The husband complied. Chester counted the lines of one of the pages.
Madame watched him anxiously.

"Tha'z too wide?" she inquired.

"It isn't long enough to make a book. To do that would take--oh--seven
times as much."

"Ah!" Madame's voice grew in sweetness as it rose: "So much the
better! So much the more room for those advertisement'!--and picture'!"