Morley Roberts

“ Jevons looked round,
"I believe I've sold it," he said with a grim chuckle,
Cator slapped him on the back.
"Good old man: if you'd only really follow up your bent you'd be a genius yet. And well paid geniuses are nowadays. Lord, how the bird lays for 'em! But I suppose you'll take the money you get and bust it here in threes of whisky for a crowd like this—not worth a protested bill accepted by a dead policeman." ”

“ Then the three Jevons held a consultation together with the Devil, and talked for many hours. A square spirit-bottle was umpire.
"No, thank you," said the Devil, very politely. "I don't drink, it's against my principles and the doctor's orders. A warm climate, you know, plays the very—I mean, it renders one's liver touchy. But pray don't let me interfere with any of the other gentlemen."
"Very good of you, I'm sure," said the Genius, who had far too good manners to press any friend to drink.
"All the more for me," said the Sub-Editor, who was naturally not strong in courtesy. ”

“ They were the quality of literary diamond that gets put to cutting and polishing instead of being itself polished and set; and many of them had a diseased opinion of their own powers. But some were sombre, abject, down-trodden, and half-crown-seeking men of letters. ”

“ He knows he gets more work out of me than he would out of a fresh-run German whose English was still Ollendorf; and yet he keeps me on the same pay. No; I say nothing of that; but he's a devil, and makes faces and jeers in a polite, gentlemanly way till he fills me with fury.
"Yes," said Cator rather absently, for to tell the truth he often found Jevons on Ellis a trifle heavier than Byles on Bills. And as a discounter's clerk he often had to look up Byles. "I daresay he's a hard 'un. But, then, he's the oof bird as far as you are concerned, so stick to him while you can." ”

“ Offer him five pounds for it."
"It's a long story," said Jevons.
"Five pounds is quite enough," answered the editor. "I must keep expenses down."
Jevons, while the editor talked almost automatically, made a shorthand note of what he said. For that was part of his work.
"And if he won't alter it?" he suggested.
"Let him keep it," said Ellis, a little crossly. "But he'll do it fast enough. An unknown man doesn't get a chance in my magazine every day."
Jevons grinned savagely, and then laughed a little dry crackle of a laugh.
"Yes?" said Ellis, half absently.
"Nothing," replied Jevons. ”