'When her novels were finished, she would take them up herself to Gerald Duckworth at 3, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. She was by this time on extremely cordial terms with her publisher and he encouraged her to read her books, or large portions of them, aloud to him. Her books, she maintained, were intended to be read aloud and lost their proper effect if they were read in silence. She herself was extremely proud of her reading voice;* she would read slowly with long dramatic pauses and Duckworth would meekly put aside all other work and listen, while Margot often waited patiently in the hansom outside.' * It was the mark of a gentlewoman to be able to read aloud beautifully. All her heroines had it, or acquired it painfully, and practice it frequently.