similar phrase been put in heaps of novels before? Because the
British public won't have anything too new. It likes to head over
again what it has heard at least fifty thousand times before, and
then it knows it won't be shocked. Yes, that sentence will do. Now I
must put in a few more and then, thank goodness, the scene will be
done! Now," I said, springing up from the table, "do you call that
art? do you call it genius? Is a collection of bald phrases and
second-hand sentiments, hooked together like that, worth anything
when it's done?"

"My dear boy, don't excite yourself like that," my father answered
deliberately. "Sit down and finish your soup."

"Oh, hang the soup!" I said, resuming my seat. "Shall I sound the
gong? I have not told you my way yet, but I'm coming to it when the
man's gone." I sounded the gong, and the butler came in with the
next course.

There was no carving ever done at our table, so my father had only
to tranquilly continue eating while I talked. He had forced me into
the discussion, and now he should hear it to the end.

"Of course, if you do write the death of Tomkins like that you can
keep your scenes orthodox, or whatever word you have in view. But,
supposing my MS. is lying incomplete;--I have a conviction that I am
going to write of death, but the method of the man's death is at
present unknown to me, unthought of.--Then, some afternoon, I happen
to be sitting smoking, and just perhaps wondering whether I shall go
round to the club or not, when suddenly a scene, a death scene, the
scene I have been waiting for, comes rushing through my head. It