He remarked it distinctly on that evening when he accompanied Amy home from Mrs Yule's; since then he had allowed his pressing occupations to be an excuse for the paucity of his visits.
It seemed to him perfectly intelligible that Reardon, sinking into literary insignificance, should grow cool to a man entering upon a successful career; the vein of cynicism in Jasper enabled him to pardon a weakness of this kind, which in some measure flattered him.

But he both liked and respected Reardon, and at present he was in the mood to give expression to his warmer feelings.
'Your book is announced, I see,' he said with an accent of pleasure, as soon as he had seated himself.
'I didn't know it.' 'Yes.

"New novel by the author of 'On Neutral Ground.'" Down for the sixteenth of April.

And I have a proposal to make about it.

Will you let me ask Fadge to have it noticed in "Books of the Month," in the May Current ?' 'I strongly advise you to let it take its chance.