Indeed,
there was a notice at the railway bookstall on the day he left, to the
effect that the first edition was exhausted, and that a large second
edition would be available almost immediately. 'Place your orders at
once' was added in bold red letters. Rogers bought one of these
placards for his cousin.
'It just shows,' observed Minks, whom he was taking out with him.
'Shows what?' inquired his master.
'How many more thoughtful people there are about, sir, than one had
any idea of,' was the reply. 'The public mind is looking for something
of that kind, expecting it even, though it hardly knows what it really
wants. That's a story, Mr. Rogers, that must change the point of view
of all who read it--with understanding. It makes the commonest man
feel he is a hero.'
'You've put our things into a non-smoker, Minks,' the other
interrupted him. 'What in the world are you thinking about?'
'I beg your pardon, I'm sure, sir; so I have,' said Minks, blushing,
and bundling the bags along the platform to another empty carriage,
'but that story has got into my head. I sat up reading it aloud to
Mrs. Minks all night. For it says the very things I have always longed
to say. Sympathy and the transference of thought--to say nothing of
the soul's activity when the body is asleep--have always seemed to
me---'
He wandered on while his companion made himself comfortable in a
corner with his pipe and newspaper.
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