Page:A Literary Courtship (1893).pdf/50

 "I think them good," saidhe. "If the rest average as high, I should think they might stand on their own legs."

"Shall you write and tell her so?"

"What I should like would be to see the lot. But, confound it! that would involve a regular correspondence, and I should feel like a sneak and a villain."

"You don't want to make a clean breast of it?"

"No, I don't," he answered curtly.

"You might refer her to your friend, John Brunt. I'm sure if she has read your essay on "Verse versus Verse," she will have confidence in your judgment."

"Not such a bad idea," said John.

"An uncommonly good idea, if you would give a fellow his dues," said I.

"The handwriting is rather a hitch"

"Haven't you got a fellow copying for you somewhere? Make him write the Brunt letters."

"He can't sign for me."

"You can sign for yourself. You write