Pardon me, I interposed somewhat wearilybut are you sure you judge the public taste correctly? He smiled a bland smile of indulgent amusement at what he no doubt considered my ignorance in putting such a query. ?Of course I am sure,??he replied??It is my business to know the public taste as thoroughly as I know my own pocket. Understand me,?I don?t suggest that you should write a book on any positively indecent subject,?that can be safely left to the ?New? woman,??and he laughed,??but I assure you high-class fiction doesn?t sell. The critics don?t like it, to begin with. What goes down with them and with the public is a bit of sensational realism told in terse newspaper English. Literary English,?Addisonian English,?is a mistake.? And I am also a mistake I think, I said with a forced smileAt any rate if what you say be true, I must lay down the pen and try another trade. I am old-fashioned enough to consider Literature as the highest of all professions, and I would rather not join in with those who voluntarily degrade it. He gave me a quick side-glance of mingled incredulity and depreciation.