The World of Chance by William Dean Howells

The distant street door opened at last, and a gentleman came in. His / entrance caused an indefinite sensation in the clerks, such as we all / feel in the presence of the man who pays our wages. At the sound of his / step, Ray's street friend turned about from his shelf, but without / offering to leave it.

"Ah, good-morning, good-morning! " he called out; and the other called / back, "Ah, good-morning, Mr. Kane! " and pushed on up towards a door near / that of Ray's retreat. A clerk stopped him, and after a moment's parley / he came in upon the young fellow. He was a man of fifty-five or sixty, / with whiskers slightly frosted, and some puckers and wrinkles about his / temples and at the corners of his mouth, and a sort of withered bloom in / his cheeks, something like the hardy self-preservation of the / late-hanging apple that people call a frozen-thaw. He was a thin man, / who seemed once to have been stouter; he had a gentle presence and a / somewhat careworn look.

"Mr. Brandreth? " Ray said, rising.

"No," said the other; "Mr. Chapley."

"Oh, I beg your pardon," said Ray. "They showed me into Mr. Brandreth's / room, and I thought" --

"It's quite right, quite right," said Mr. Chapley. "Mr. Brandreth will / be in almost any moment if you wish to see him personally. " Mr. Chapley / glanced at the parcel in Ray's hand.

"Oh no; I have a letter for the firm," and Ray gave it to Mr. Chapley, / who read it through and then offered his hand, and said he was glad to / meet Mr. Ray. He asked some questions of commonplace friendliness about / his correspondent, and he said, with the kind of melancholy which seemed / characteristic of him: "So you have come to take a hand in the great / game here. Well, if there is anything I can do to serve you, I shall be / very glad."

Ray answered promptly, in pursuance of his plan: "You are very kind, Mr. / Chapley. I'm going to write letters to the paper I've been connected / with in Midland, and I wish to give them largely a literary character. I / shall be obliged to you for any literary news you have."

Mr. Chapley seemed relieved of a latent dread. A little knot of anxiety / between his eyes came untied; he did not yet go to the length of laying / off his light overcoat, but he set his hat down on Mr. Brandreth's desk, / and he loosed the grip he had kept of his cane.

"Why, Mr. Brandreth rather looks after that side of the business. He's / more in touch with the younger men -- with what's going on, in fact, than / I am. He can tell you all there is about our own small affairs, and put / you in relations with other publishers, if you wish."

"Thank you -- " Ray began.

"Not at all; it will be to our advantage, I'm sure. We should be glad to / do much more for any friend of our old friends" -- Mr. Chapley had to / refer to the letter-head of the introduction before he could make sure / of his old friends' style -- "Schmucker & Wills. I hope they are / prospering in these uncertain times?"

Ray said they were doing very well, he believed, and Mr. Chapley went / on.

"So many of the local booksellers are feeling the competition of the / large stores which have begun to deal in books as well as everything / else under the sun, nowadays. I understand they have completely / disorganized the book trade in some of our minor cities; completely! / They take hold of a book like _Robert Elsmere_, for instance, as if it / were a piece of silk that they control the pattern of, and run it at a / price that is simply ruinous; besides doing a large miscellaneous / business in books at rates that defy all competition on the part of the / regular dealers. But perhaps you haven't suffered from these commercial / monstrosities yet in Midland?"

"Oh, yes," said Ray; "We have our local Stewart's or Macy's, whichever / it is; and I imagine Schmucker & Wills feel it, especially at the / holidays. " He had never had to buy any books himself, because he got the / copies sent to the _Echo_ for review; and now, in deference to Mr. / Chapley, he was glad that he had not shared in the demoralization of the / book trade. "But I think," he added, cheerfully, "that they are holding / their own very well."

"I am very glad to hear it, very glad, indeed," said Mr. Chapley. "If we / can only get this international copyright measure through and dam up the / disorganizing tide of cheap publications at its source, we may hope to / restore the tone of the trade. As it is, we are ourselves constantly / restricting our enterprise as publishers. We scarcely think now of / looking at the manuscript of an unknown author."

Mr. Chapley looked at the manuscript of the unknown author before him, / as if he divined it through its wrappings of stiff manilla paper. Ray / had no reason to think that he meant to prevent a possible offer of / manuscript, but he could not help thinking so, and it cut him short in / the inquiries he was going to make as to the extent of the / demoralization the book trade had suffered through the competition of / the large variety stores. He had seen a whole letter for the _Echo_ in / the subject, but now he could not go on. He sat blankly staring at Mr. / Chapley's friendly, pensive face, and trying to decide whether he had / better get himself away without seeing Mr. Brandreth, or whether he had / better stay and meet him, and after a cold, formal exchange of / civilities, shake the dust of Chapley & Co. 's publishing house from his / feet forever. The distant street door opened again, and a small light / figure, much like his own, entered briskly. Mr. Kane turned about at the / new-comer's step as he had turned at Mr. Chapley's, and sent his / cheerful hail across the book counters as before. "Ah, good-morning, / good-morning!"