Thank you for correcting the text in this article. Your corrections improve Papers Past searches for everyone. See the latest corrections.

This article contains searchable text which was automatically generated and may contain errors. Join the community and correct any errors you spot to help us improve Papers Past.

Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image

THE EDITOR’S VISITORS.

Edward Wynter took a chair anti sat clown. No one spoke. Every one in the room stared at him for an instant, and he stared curiously at them all. Each of them had a bundle of papers or a notebook in his hand, and every one of them loaned on a stout cotton umbrella. Three of the party were men, two ladies. A tall man with a red face, a very stout man with a red face, a third man of a shadowy presence, who kept in the background, away from the window, in the darkest corner of tho room, and planting his umbrella between his knees, as all tho others did, seemed to bo lost in contemplation of its knob. Edward Wynter saw that he ought to have brought an umbrella; ho had come among them as a man unarmed. One of the ladies was more remarkable for development of brow, and from having parted her hair very much on one side, than from any particular charm of face or figure. Tho other was a young girl in a shabby black dress, who instantly attracted his attention ; for not only did she, like all the others, carry a formidable cotton umbrella, but sho wore very unmistakable black cotton gloves, very long in the fingers. The other lady was of the strong-minded class, who despise gloves and whose hands are bony. This was intelligible to Mr. Wynter, hut not the cotton gloves of the younger lady. “ If gloves at all, why not kid ?” he argued to himself in the dearth of more urgent matter for reflection. The messenger came in again and again, and each time called out a name, and each time one of the party got up and followed him out of the room, till at length Edward Wynter and the young person with the cotton gloves were left together. He had determined to wait his turn, and also to accost the last person left. “ Are you waiting to see the editor ?” ho asked. “No,” answered the young lady with cotton gloves, “ the sub-editor.” “ And all these persons with—with umbrellas,” said the young man, who for the moment could think of nothing more distinctive about them, “ pray, who are they ?” “ That lady,” said she, “is the light literature reviewer. She does tho novels, you know, and the minor poets. Tho tall man is in tho police court reporting department ; the stout person with the red face is a theatrical critic, and sometimes does a coroner’s inquest ; and tho thin gentleman, who sat in the corner, is fires, murders, and sudden deaths.” Tho young lady was a very young lady indeed, not more than fifteen or sixteen, with a very pale thin face, not in the least

pretty, was so perfectly serious and matter-of-fact in her conversation that Edward Wyuter neither laughed nor looked astonished. “What is your own business on the paper ?” he asked her. “ We—that is, my mother and I—do the public concert critiques,” and she extricated a roll of manuscript somewhere from the inside of her cottou umbrella, and showed it to him. Then, after a pause, and looking at the young man, “Are you on the paper—no?” “ Not exactly," said he; “1 want to be.” “Ah !” said the young lady discreetly. But Mr. Wyuter, though not given to confidence, had got too much out of his companion not to tell her about himself in return, “ I have written one article, and I want to be regularly employed.” “A leading article 2” “Yes, about ; ” he mentioned the subject of his article of that morning. “ You wrote that article ? ” she said with sudden interest. “I wish I had.” “Why?” he asked. “Because then my fortune would be made !” “ Miss Campernowne,” called the boy, and she got up, and with a nod to him went out. • —New Quarterly Magazine.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM18750715.2.19

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4468, 15 July 1875, Page 3

Word count
Tapeke kupu
644

THE EDITOR’S VISITORS. New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4468, 15 July 1875, Page 3

THE EDITOR’S VISITORS. New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4468, 15 July 1875, Page 3

Help

Log in or create a Papers Past website account

Use your Papers Past website account to correct newspaper text.

By creating and using this account you agree to our terms of use.

Log in with RealMe®

If you’ve used a RealMe login somewhere else, you can use it here too. If you don’t already have a username and password, just click Log in and you can choose to create one.


Log in again to continue your work

Your session has expired.

Log in again with RealMe®


Alert