Chapter 4

Author _are discovered discussing the situation._

_Author (gloomily)._ And so you say that _An Oppressed Ophelia_ is a dead failure?

_Publisher (more cheerfully)._ Yes, my dear Sir, but do not be distressed. Thanks to my foresight, and your acquiescence in a business-like arrangement, my firm has lost nothing by the transaction.

_Author (dryly)._ That I can readily understand! Well, I suppose you have plenty of copies you can give back to me?

_Publisher._ Well, scarcely. You see the Londoners did not take up your book very warmly; but we have made an arrangement to dispose of the rest of the issue in the country at a considerable reduction.

_Author._ And _An English Hamlet_?

_Publisher._ We shall be glad to produce on the same terms!

[_Exeunt_ Author _and_ Publisher _severally._