WCP68

[1]

Broadstone, Dorset.

Dec^r. 19^th. 1902

My dear Will¹

We expect Violet² home tomorrow Evening. We have still 8 men hard at work on the house ^&c;^. besides the painter, and also now, for a week, Tom Harwood & a labourer levelling & making up road with carriage sweep at front door — 11 men ^{in all} still at it! The side Verandah is just finished & tomorrow we can use it to pass from Study to Greenhouse. Front Verandah, stone retaining wall & steps at W. end finished, & looks very well — posts & rafters nearly all fixed — concrete & cement floor do:- both I hope finished tomorrow or Monday. Painter at work on the wood [2] and will put in glass next week if fine. Drawing-room will be finished tomorrow, & then there will be scrubbing out, sizing & staining round floor before we can get in any furniture & so relieve other rooms. Percy & the joiner have done most of the panelling of Dining Room, but the sideboard is to be done on a slight modification of your plan, which both he & I think will go best with the panelling, which is quite plain, but will look good. There³ is a lot of work yet on Ceiling joists, cornice, frieze, skirting &c.

The Study wh. we have now lived in for a month, is a very comfortable looking room, & when we get it with its proper furniture in it, will quite come up to my expectations — The book-cases &c look well in it & all is to my eye quite harmonious [3] except, one of the doors, which can be replaced when we can afford it. Up to now weekly wages have been £12 or more, & monthly bills from £30 to £50 or more. I am now about £150 in debt to Bank after ^{having had Macmillan’s acct. in advance;} but, fortunately, a month back ^I had an application for an article from an American Mag^e. Agent in London, for the New York "Independent". He offered £20 for 2500 ^{or 3000} words.- I proposed to make an article of that part you read of new "Wond. Cent." about our being in the centre of the Universe. I have written it entirely afresh, and it is about 8000 words long.- and I asked — £60! for it, — & the Agent — a Mr. Curtis Brown, says he will get me £50 — & that is the highest the "Independent" [4] has ever paid; but still I hope to get £60. But what is even better, he suggests (after reading it) that I make a book of it, of about 70,000 words, & he will arrange for its publication, & get me a good Royalty & a good sum paid in advance. So I shall stick at it directly after the holidays, and if I have luck, and Mr. C. B. is to be depended on, I shall perhaps ^{be able} to clear off all the debt before Midsummer. Mr. C. Brown, wants of course a good Commission (10 p.c.) if he arranges this, & he will deserve it, but that will ^must be on the amounts he gets ^{for me} cash down,- not on the Royalty afterwards. I hope you will be able to get here ‘Xmas eve early, & stay till the following Monday. I congratulate you on your prospects at Rugby. A specialist for Elect. Power work in Mines will be good & interesting, & I sh[oul]^d think not difficult.

Your affect[ionate] Pa | A.R. Wallace [signature]