a small publishing concern, housed in an alley off the Strand,
and Mr Polo (a singular name, to become well known in the course
of time) had his ideas about its possible extension. Among other
instances of activity he started a penny weekly paper, called All
Sorts, and in the pages of this periodical Alfred Yule first
appeared as an author. Before long he became sub-editor of All
Sorts, then actual director of the paper. He said good-bye to the
bookseller, and his literary career fairly began.

Mr Polo used to say that he never knew a man who could work so
many consecutive hours as Alfred Yule. A faithful account of all
that the young man learnt and wrote from 1855 to 1860--that is,
from his twenty-fifth to his thirtieth year--would have the look
of burlesque exaggeration. He had set it before him to become a
celebrated man, and he was not unaware that the attainment of
that end would cost him quite exceptional labour, seeing that
nature had not favoured him with brilliant parts. No matter; his
name should be spoken among men unless he killed himself in the
struggle for success.

In the meantime he married. Living in a garret, and supplying
himself with the materials of his scanty meals, he was in the
habit of making purchases at a little chandler's shop, where he
was waited upon by a young girl of no beauty, but, as it seemed
to him, of amiable disposition. One holiday he met this girl as
she was walking with a younger sister in the streets; he made her
nearer acquaintance, and before long she consented to be his wife
and share his garret. His brothers, John and Edmund, cried out
that he had made an unpardonable fool of himself in marrying so
much beneath him; that he might well have waited until his income