"That was, at
bottom, the reason I came here. The essay in question is the most
important thing I have done in the way of a literary attempt, and I
determined to give up the game or to persist, according as I should be
able to bring it to the light or not. The other day I got a letter from
the editor of the _Rational Review_, telling me that he should be very
happy to print it, that he thought it very remarkable, and that he
should be glad to hear from me again. He shall hear from me again--he
needn't be afraid! It contained a good many of the opinions I have
expressed to you, and a good many more besides. I really believe it will
attract some attention. At any rate, the simple fact that it is to be
published makes an era in my life. This will seem pitiful to you, no
doubt, who publish yourself, have been before the world these several
years, and are flushed with every kind of triumph; but to me it's simply
a tremendous affair. It makes me believe I may do something; it has
changed the whole way I look at my future. I have been building castles
in the air, and I have put you in the biggest and fairest of them.
That's a great change, and, as I say, it's really why I came on."
Verena lost not a word of this gentle, conciliatory, explicit statement;
it was full of surprises for her, and as soon as Ransom had stopped
speaking she inquired: "Why, didn't you feel satisfied about your future
before?"
Her tone made him feel how little she had suspected he could have the
weakness of a discouragement, how little of a question it must have
seemed to her that he would one day triumph on his own erratic line.
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