He could not have said whether he would prefer
her to be good or bad.
These were but his leisure moments, for during the long working hours
he was still at the exercises, toiling fondly, and right willing to
tear himself asunder to get at the trick of writing. So he passed
from exercises to the grand experiment.
It was to be a tale, for there, they had taken for granted, lay the
treasure. Pym was most considerate at this time, and mentioned woman
with an apology.
"I have kept away from them in the exercises," he said in effect,
"because it would have been useless (as well as cruel) to force you to
labour on a subject so uncongenial to you; and for the same reason I
have decided that it is to be a tale of adventure, in which the
heroine need be little more than a beautiful sack of coals which your
cavalier carries about with him on his left shoulder. I am afraid we
must have her to that extent, Thomas, but I am not asking much of you;
dump her down as often as you like."
And Thomas did his dogged best, the red light in his eye; though he
had not, and never could have had, the smallest instinct for
story-writing, he knew to the finger-tips how it is done; but for ever
he would have gone on breaking all the rules of the game.
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