"So much the better. Well, Miss Liddell, I will look at the manuscript,
or rather our reader shall, and let you know the result in due course;
but I must warn you that we are rather overdone with three-volume
novels, and there are already a large number of manuscripts awaiting
perusal, so you must not expect our verdict for some little time."

"When you will, but oh! as soon as you can," she urged.

"I will keep your address, and you shall hear at the earliest date we
can manage. Good-morning. Very damp, uncomfortable day."

Katherine felt herself dismissed, and almost forgot her ulterior
intention. "Would you be so very good as to let me look at the
Directory, if you have one?"

"Certainly," said Wyndham, who was slipping the card under the string of
poor Katherine's parcel. "Here, Tompkins, let this young lady see the
Directory. Excuse me--I am a good deal pressed for time;" and with a bow
he went off, the manuscript under his arm.

"Well, it is really in his hands, at all events," thought Katherine,
looking wistfully after it.

A boy with inky hands here placed that thick volume, the Post-Office
Directory, before her, and she proceeded to search confusedly among the
endless pages of names, a little strengthened and cheered by her brief
interview with the publisher. It seemed that she was in a lucky vein:
trouble is always conducive to superstition. When visible hope fails,
poor human hearts turn to the invisible and the improbable.