Geraldine Bonner

“ I write for the thinking man and woman.”
“It is not much use writing for the thinking man and woman when they never see it. But still—let that rest. Reserve your judgment till after to-night. This evening I purpose reading my new story to Elmira and Mrs. Murdock. You also may have the supreme felicity of listening, and you will see how necessary a person Elmira Deane is in the world of literature.”
Half-past six was the dinner hour at No. 208, and as the old-fashioned clock chimed its single note, Mrs. Murdock and her boarders gathered round the table. ”

“ Elmira drooped her head to one side in meditation. Her thick, white eyelids were lowered, the curve of her healthy young cheek was pink as the lips of a sea-shell.
“I like love,” she said slowly, “but auntie prefers studies of character. Mrs. Webster says all Auntie wants in a story to have a moral lesson at the end. You could write a love story for me, and squeeze in the moral lesson for Auntie, could n't you?'
“If you really would like a story, I might try,” said Stafford Connelly meekly.
That night Shenstone, who was a gentleman of social engagements, did not get in till late. ”

“ But then you know one cannot live on sweet stories, can one?” And she looked into Shenstone's eyes with an air of smiling condescension that was delightfully like her aunt's.
After dinner the ladies retired to the sitting room to hear Mr. Shenstone's new story. Elmira and Stafford Connelly, not immediately leaving the dining-room, Shenstone had an opportunity of hearing how Mr. Connelly had taken such a good position—a hundred and fifty a month—and they thought would give up literature. Shenstone saw that the ladies had decided the time was not yet ripe for more important disclosures. ”

“ This gifted person had moved into his small apartment at No. 208 at five in the afternoon and at half-past might have been discovered sitting on the corner of his portmanteau, with the few unimportant trifles that comprised his wardrobe scattered about him, and before him, the lid thrown back, the sole-leather trunk that held the precious outpourings of his muse.
The side door of his room communicating with Billy Shenstone's was open, and Billy Shenstone stood in the doorway looking at his friend. Billy Shenstone had brought Connelly to Mrs. Murdock's boarding house. ”

“ This is the secret of her power—she is The Young Person! There are other types of the species in New York, but there can be no other as perfect as she is. And here, shut away in this old brown-stone front on the East side, Phenix Byron found her blushing unseen and wasting her sweetness on Mrs. Murdock and several, commonplace, illiterate boarders who never held a pen or read a book. ”

“ Her little skull is as full of mind as an egg is of meat. But she's The Young Person, that's all. When Elmira surprises you just think of that, then nothing about her will ever surprise you again.”
“I cannot imagine any one writing a story that would appeal to her unless it was about dolls and a sampler.”
“Elmira likes love,” said Shenstone, meditatively “Love's young dream. And when you can write a love story that Elmira will like your fortune will be made. Editors will dog your footsteps.” ”

“ She has bound our muse down, and clipped its wings with the little scissors hanging at her girdle, till the poor thing will never fly again. She is the bane of every artist in the country. She has forced us all to be smirking liars. ”

“ No self-respecting woman would ever speak to any man in that manner. No—no—that scene must be changed before I can allow Elmira to hear it. The man must propose to the woman, and she may modestly accept.”
Shenstone, who had stopped marking, read over his mutilated manuscript and groaned feebly.
“It will be as flat as last night's beer,” protested Mrs. Webster.
Mrs. Murdock did not approve of this comparison and said stiffly.
“We must consider the mind of youth. Elmira cannot hear that story in its present form. If Mr. Shenstone cares about her hearing it he must change it.” ”

“ After a reading to Elmira and her aunt, the MS. being neatly marked with a red cross where Elmira has been sent to get a handkerchief, with a 'B' where she has blushed, with an 'O' where she herself has observed that the heroine did not please her, we know that our work may be submitted with safety to the magazine that is most boastfully 'fitted for perusal in the home circle.' And we are rarely disappointed in the results. I have often thought that Elmira is one of the most perfect examples of The Young Person in the savage state now extant. ”

“ We always read our stuff to her and to Mrs. Murdock. When Mrs. Murdock coughs or sends Elmira up to get her handkerchief we always know that we must strike out the paragraph. At times Elmira expresses herself as somewhat surprised at the forward behavior of our heroine. Elmira is the best brought-up girl in the world, and we immediately subdue the heroine. ”

“ Because of her none of us dare to be true. She has broken the heart of naturalism and chilled the blood of romance. Let me starve in a garret before I cut a paragraph or change a sentence in a mistaken effort to keep her mind as blank as a sheet of white paper. ”

“ Shenstone,” said Mrs. Murdock, as a neat-handed Phyllis began to pass the viands, “is going to be good enough to read us his new story to-night.”
“What's the name, William?” asked Mrs. Webster, setting her knife and fork down with their tips resting against the sides of her plate, and ducking her head to peer at Shenstone under the lamp's red umbrella.
“I have gone to Shakespeare again—'And I for no woman.' I hope you'll like it; I fancy it's a little bit new.”
“When is Mr. Connelly going to treat us to some of the flights of his muse?” queried Mrs. ”

“ Then, after a year of having our stuff 'returned wtih thanks' we realize what the power of The Young Person is—we begin to see that it's a serious business to declare war against her. She starves us out—mais il faut vivre. ”