successful men are fools, all remarkably unsuccessful men are
geniuses.'

'Pretty subtle for a young lady,' he said slowly. 'From that remark
I should fancy you had bought experience.'

She passed over the idea. 'Do try to succeed,' she said, with
wistful thoughtfulness, leaving her eyes on him.

Springrove flushed a little at the earnestness of her words, and
mused. 'Then, like Cato the Censor, I shall do what I despise, to
be in the fashion,' he said at last. . . 'Well, when I found all
this out that I was speaking of, what ever do you think I did? From
having already loved verse passionately, I went on to read it
continually; then I went rhyming myself. If anything on earth ruins
a man for useful occupation, and for content with reasonable success
in a profession or trade, it is the habit of writing verses on
emotional subjects, which had much better be left to die from want
of nourishment.'

'Do you write poems now?' she said.

'None. Poetical days are getting past with me, according to the
usual rule. Writing rhymes is a stage people of my sort pass
through, as they pass through the stage of shaving for a beard, or
thinking they are ill-used, or saying there's nothing in the world
worth living for.'

'Then the difference between a common man and a recognized poet is,
that one has been deluded, and cured of his delusion, and the other