One was in the bold, superior
scrawl of a boy, the other ineffably feminine in its painstaking
regard for legibility and tidiness.
III
These literary efforts had been cut off short in their infancy.
David's vigorously written pages, marred by frequent scratchings
and erasures, far outnumbered Alix's. He was in the midst of Chapter
Three of a novel entitled "The Phantom Singer" when the calamitous
interruption came. Alix's work had progressed to Chapter Five.
Inspection revealed the further fact that she was thrifty. She
had written on both sides of the sheets, while the prodigal David
confined himself to the inexorable "one side of the sheet only."
There were unmistakable indications of editorial arrogance on
the part of Alix on every sheet of David's manuscript. Her small,
precise hand was to be seen here, there and everywhere,--sometimes
in the substitution of a single word, often in the rewriting of an
entire sentence. But nowhere on her own pages was to be found so
much as a scratch by the clumsy hand of her fellow novelist.
Her story bore the fetching title: "Lady Mordaunt's Lover."
Courtney read the first page of her script. A sudden wave of remorse,
even guilt, swept through him. Back in his mind he pictured her
bending studiously, earnestly to the task, her heart in every line
she was penning, her dear little brow wrinkled in thought.
Pages:
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181