But if you had listened at his door you must have heard a pen going, swiftly and boldly.

He was hard at work, doing unto others what others had done unto him.

You were a stranger to him; some magazine had accepted a story that you had written and published it.

R.H.D.had found something to like and admire in that story (very little perhaps), and it was his duty and pleasure to tell you so.

If he had liked the story very much he would send you instead of a note a telegram.