Will you favour me with a line stating whether
_any_, or how many copies have yet been sold?"
But few, I fear; for, three days later, she wrote the following:--
"The Messrs. Bell desire me to thank you for your suggestion respecting
the advertisements. They agree with you that, since the season is
unfavourable, advertising had better be deferred. They are obliged to
you for the information respecting the number of copies sold."
On July 23rd she writes to the Messrs. Aylott:--
"The Messrs. Bell would be obliged to you to post the enclosed note in
London. It is an answer to the letter you forwarded, which contained an
application for their autographs from a person who professed to have read
and admired their poems. I think I before intimated, that the Messrs.
Bell are desirous for the present of remaining unknown, for which reason
they prefer having the note posted in London to sending it direct, in
order to avoid giving any clue to residence, or identity by post-mark,
&c."
Once more, in September, she writes, "As the work has received no further
notice from any periodical, I presume the demand for it has not greatly
increased."
In the biographical notice of her sisters, she thus speaks of the failure
of the modest hopes vested in this publication. "The book was printed;
it is scarcely known, and all of it that merits to be known are the poems
of Ellis Bell.
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