secondly, that literature was a drug upon the market. With airy
self-assertiveness, the ex-publisher dismissed the contents of the
green box that Borrow had brought with him, which had already aroused
considerable suspicion in the mind of the maid who had admitted him
to the publisher's presence.

When he had thoroughly dashed the young author's hopes of employment,
Sir Richard informed him of a new publication he had in preparation,
The Universal Review [The Oxford Review of Lavengro], which was to
support the son of the house and the wife he had married. With a
promise that he should become a contributor to the new review, an
earnest exhortation to write a story in the style of The Dairyman's
Daughter, and an invitation to dinner for the following Sunday, the
first interview between George Borrow and Sir Richard Phillips ended,
and Borrow left the great man's presence to begin his exploration of
London, first leaving his manuscripts at Milman Street. During the
rest of the day he walked "scarcely less than thirty miles about the
big city." It was late when he returned to his lodgings, thoroughly
tired, but with a copy of The Dairyman's Daughter, for "a well-
written tale in the style" of which Sir Richard Phillips "could
afford as much as ten pounds." The day had been one of the most
eventful in Borrow's life.

On the following Sunday Borrow dined at Tavistock Square, and met
Lady Phillips, young Phillips and his bride. He learned that Sir
Richard was a vegetarian of twenty years' standing and a total
abstainer, although meat and wine were not banished from his table.
When publisher and potential author were left alone, the son having
soon followed the ladies into the drawing-room, Borrow heard of Sir
Richard's amiable intentions towards him. He was to compile six