He recalled various stories which he had read in the current magazines of late, and it seemed to him that his compared very favorably with them.

He tried to think of the matter judicially, as if the rejected story were not his own, and felt justified in thinking well of it.

He had a sickening sense of being pitted against something which he could not gainsay, which his own convictions as to the privilege of persons in authority to have their own opinions forbade him to question.
"The editors had a perfect right to return my story, even if it is every whit as worthy of publication, even worthier, than anything which has appeared in their magazine for a twelvemonth," he told himself.
He realized that he was not dependent upon the public concerning the merit of his work--he could not be until the work appeared in print--but he was combating the opinions (or appealing to them) of a few men whose critical abilities might be biassed by a thousand personal matters with which he could not interfere.

He felt that there was a broad, general injustice in the situation, but absolute right as to facts.

These were men to whom was given the power to accept or refuse.