Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

A DISAGREEABLE PAUSE. 61
Mr Murray writes that he is willing to take his " full
share of the responsibility." The manner in which he
agrees to the transaction is characteristic :
'* I enter upon it, however, not as a matter of
business, or even almost experiment, but in the same
way as I should buy a lottery ticket, considering it as
money which I could afford, or rather choose, to throw
away—and think no more of it unless it actually
came up a prize." It is perhaps also in respect to
this that he writes significantly in another letter,
" I take care that everything pays me in some way,"
—a statement full of meaning.
After this there occurred an interval of silence, and
everything dropped into its usual routine,—a silence
soon full of uneasiness for Blackwood, who waited week
by week with great anxiety to hear something more of
his book : but not a word came. The bills for John
Ballantyne's stock had been given at once and the
books delivered, and there for the moment the trans-
action seemed to have stopped short. In the original
bargain it had been stated that the book was to be
ready for publication on the 1st of October. In the
meantime other incidents had occurred to make Blackwood
uneasy. A historical work, described as "Letters
upon the History of Scotland, by Walter Scott," had
been offered to him in conjunction with Murray, and
then had been announced as about to be published by
Constable,—a fact which wounded him deeply. He
complained to Ballantyne of this, and received through
him a somewhat haughty message from Scott desiring
Mr Blackwood to apply for information on the subject
to himself, as it was a matter with which Ballantyne
had nothing to do ;
but this was the last thing in the
—