Roundabout Papers - Penn State University

Roundabout Papersthe Hyde Park review, will meet him at Cremorne, orwhere you will. The old friend who has owed him thatmoney these five years will meet him at so-and-so andpay. By one bait or other the victim is hooked, netted,landed, and down goes the basket-lid. It is not yourwife, your sweetheart, your friend who is going to payyou. It is Mr. Nab the bailiff. You know—you are caught.You are off in a cab to Chancery Lane.You know, I say? Why should you know? I make nomanner of doubt you never were taken by a bailiff inyour life. I never was. I have been in two or three debtors’prisons, but not on my own account. Goodness bepraised! I mean you can’t escape your lot; and Nab onlystands here metaphorically as the watchful, certain, anduntiring officer of Mr. Sheriff Fate. Why, my dear Primrose,this morning along with your letter comes another,bearing the well-known superscription of another oldfriend, which I open without the least suspicion, andwhat do I find? A few lines from my friend Johnson, it istrue, but they are written on a page covered with femininehandwriting. “Dear Mr. Johnson,” says the writer, “Ihave just been perusing with delight a most charmingtale by the Archbishop of Cambray. It is called ‘Telemachus;’and I think it would be admirably suited to the CornhillMagazine. As you know the Editor, will you have thegreat kindness, dear Mr. Johnson, to communicate withhim personally (as that is much better than writing in aroundabout way to the Publishers, and waiting goodnessknows how long for an answer), and state my readinessto translate this excellent and instructive story. I do notwish to breathe a word against ‘Lovel Parsonage,’ ‘Framleythe Widower,’ or any of the novels which have appearedin the Cornhill Magazine, but I am sure ‘Telemachus’ is asgood as new to English readers, and in point of interestand morality far,” &c. &c. &c.There it is. I am stabbed through Johnson. He haslent himself to this attack on me. He is weak aboutwomen. Other strong men are. He submits to the commonlot, poor fellow. In my reply I do not use a word ofunkindness. I write him back gently, that I fear“Telemachus” won’t suit us. He can send the letter onto his fair correspondent. But however soft the answer,50