Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/478

420 of each book cost just forty-seven and a half cents. Mrs. Eddy had been getting one dollar royalty upon every copy sold and the publisher got the rest. When her adopted son began to publish Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy worked her royalty up to a dollar and a half a copy, since Dr. Foster was readily persuaded that it was all in the family.

The sale of Mrs. Eddy's works was exceedingly profitable to her and even more profitable to her publisher, since the market for them was ready-made and there was never a dollar spent in general advertising. Dr. Foster's accounts show that in the year 1893 he paid Mrs. Eddy $11,692.79 in royalties; in 1894 her royalties amounted to $14,834.12; and in 1895 she received from Dr. Foster $18,481.97, making a total profit of $45,008.88 for the three years. Needless to say, her annual royalties have greatly increased since 1895, and have now reached a figure which puts all other American authors to financial shame.

But from the day that Mrs. Eddy installed Dr. Foster as her publisher, his years were numbered. The position was the most remunerative she had to offer, and this new and substantial mark of her favour only increased the existing prejudice against her son. Ever since Foster's adoption, jealousy had rankled in the household. Mr. Frye had always watched him with a stony and distrustful eye. Each had accused the other of "mesmerising" Mrs. Eddy against him, and of using her affection for his own advantage.

There was jealousy in Boston, as well as at Pleasant View. Some of the workers there complained that Dr. Foster had been made too prominent, and that he had more personal influence than any one except Mrs. Eddy herself should have; others