frightened him.

"I should say so! Why, you fit in everywhere--science, theology,
natural history--and then the all-for-the-best element which is so
popular just now. Why, you come right in with the How-to-Relax
series, and they sell way up in the millions. And then the book's so
full of tenderness--there are such lovely things in it about flowers
and children. I didn't know an old Dryasdust like you could have
such a lot of sentiment in him. Why, I actually caught myself
snivelling over that passage about the snowdrops piercing the frozen
earth; and my wife was saying the other day that, since she's read
'The Vital Thing,' she begins to think you must write the
'What-Cheer Column,' in the _Inglenook."_ He threw back his head with
a laugh which ended in the inspired cry: "And, by George, sir, when
the thing begins to slow off we'll start somebody writing against
it, and that will run us straight into another hundred thousand."

And as earnest of this belief he drew the Professor a supplementary
cheque.






V