Edna Lyall — the pen name of Ada Ellen Bayly, a clergyman's daughter who argued in fiction for Home Rule, for women, and for freethinkers — turns here to the writing life itself. Seen through the eyes of a devoted friend, a novelist endures years of rejection, a father who despises his work, and a patient girl who waits, until reputation arrives slowly and almost by surprise. Her quietest book, and exact in every publishing detail, this edition presents the complete and unabridged novel, newly typeset and illustrated with 30 full-page color plates.