The work was done for its own sake.

No hurry to finish it; if I felt that I wasn't up to the mark, I just waited till the better mood returned.

"On Neutral Ground" took me seven months; now I have to write three volumes in nine weeks, with the lash stinging on my back if I miss a day.' He brooded for a little.
'I suppose there must be some rich man somewhere who has read one or two of my books with a certain interest.

If only I could encounter him and tell him plainly what a cursed state I am in, perhaps he would help me to some means of earning a couple of pounds a week.

One has heard of such things.' 'In the old days.' 'Yes.