Book 3, Chapter 1

⁠​​​‌​​​​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‌​‌​‌‌​​​​‌‌‌​​​‌‌‌‌‌​​‌​‌‌​‌​​‌​‌​‌‌​⁠BASIL'S PLOT AND "MRS. BAL"

Will the time come, I wonder, when I can calmly "work up" these things into a plot? If so, I foresee that I shall have to toss a coin to decide on the casting of my own part in the story. Heads, I am hero; tails, I am villain. But it has always been a theory of mine that ninety-nine out of a hundred novels are unjust toward some of their principal characters. Each (alleg