There
was some loss--or rather would have been--and that money I exacted,
feeling that the fault had in truth been with the editor. There is
the tale now to speak for itself. It is not brilliant nor in any
way very excellent; but it certainly is not very wicked. There is
some dancing in one of the early chapters, described, no doubt,
with that approval of the amusement which I have always entertained;
and it was this to which my friend demurred. It is more true of
novels than perhaps of anything else, that one man's food is another
man's poison.
Miss Mackenzie was written with a desire to prove that a novel may
be produced without any love; but even in this attempt it breaks
down before the conclusion. In order that I might be strong in my
purpose, I took for my heroine a very unattractive old maid, who
was overwhelmed with money troubles; but even she was in love before
the end of the book, and made a romantic marriage with an old man.
There is in this story an attack upon charitable bazaars, made
with a violence which will, I think, convince any reader that such
attempts at raising money were at the time very odious to me. I beg
to say that since that I have had no occasion to alter my opinion.
Miss Mackenzie was published in the early spring of 1865.
At the same time I was engaged with others in establishing a
periodical Review, in which some of us trusted much, and from which
we expected great things.
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