Chapter XLIII

CHAPTER XLIII

"The Shame of the Sun" was published in October. As Martin cut the
cords of the express package and the half-dozen complimentary
copies from the publishers spilled out on the table, a heavy
sadness fell upon him. He thought of the wild delight that would
have been his had this happened a few short months before, and he
contrasted that delight that should have been with his present
uncaring coldness. His book, his first book, and his pulse had not
gone up a fraction of a beat, and he was only sad. It meant little
to him now. The most it meant was that it might bring some money,
and little enough did he care for money.

He carried a copy out into the kitchen and presented it to Maria.

"I did it," he explained, in order to clear up her bewilderment.
"I wrote it in the room there, and I guess some few quarts of your
vegetable soup went into the making of it. Keep it. It's yours.
Just to remember me by, you know."

He was not bragging, not showing off. His sole motive was to make
her happy, to make her proud of him, to justify her long faith in
him. She put the book in the front room on top of the family
Bible. A sacred thing was this book her lodger had made, a fetich
of friendship. It softened the blow of his having been a
laundryman, and though she could not understand a line of it, she
knew that every line of it was great. She was a simple, practical,
hard-working woman, but she possessed faith in large endowment.

Just as emotionlessly as he had received "The Shame of the Sun" did
he read the reviews of it that came in weekly from the clipping
bureau. The book was making a hit, that was evident. It meant
more gold in the money sack. He could fix up Lizzie, redeem all
his promises, and still have enough left to build his grass-walled
castle.

Singletree, Darnley & Co. had cautiously brought out an edition of
fifteen hundred copies, but the first reviews had started a second
edition of twice the size through the presses; and ere this was
delivered a third edition of five thousand had been ordered. A
London firm made arrangements by cable for an English edition, and
hot-footed upon this came the news of French, German, and
Scandinavian translations in progress. The attack upon the
Maeterlinck school could not have been made at a more opportune
moment. A fierce controversy was precipitated. Saleeby and
Haeckel indorsed and defended "The Shame of the Sun," for once
finding themselves on the same side of a question. Crookes and
Wallace ranged up on the opposing side, while Sir Oliver Lodge
attempted to formulate a compromise that would jibe with his
particular cosmic theories. Maeterlinck's followers rallied around
the standard of mysticism.