"Read the best books, get the feel of them. Study style, add words to your possession as a miser adds coins. Have you ever studied composition?"
"A little in High School."
"Frankly, I doubt if you can ever write. I see no gleam of a gift in these things you have brought me. They are sentimental and silly. But if you should want to learn something about this great art----"
"Oh, I do," said Jane earnestly.
"Very well, I will give you a list of books to begin with. You must get a position so that you can support yourself, then study when you can. Write all the time; get facility with words, then tear it up. Don't try to sell things. Begin to watch people; get abreast of events. Read the papers and the magazines in the library. Read Shakespeare, Fielding, Dickens, Thackeray, Bunyan, Meredith, Barrie, and Galsworthy. You might even try Shaw."
"Oh, I will!" cried Jane.
He laughed.
"I don't often inflict an hour's lecture upon unprotected young women, Miss Judd."
