al experiences
for one's material.

'Mama thinks it is very clever--in parts,' he told me.

'You read it to her?' I suggested.

'Yes,' he acknowledged, 'in the evening, when she's working, and Aunt
Emma isn't there.'

The room rose up before me, I could see the sweet-faced lady in her
chair beside the fire, her white hands moving to and from the pile of
sewing by her side, the little flushed face of the lad bending over his
pages written in sprawling schoolboy hand. I saw the love light in her
eyes as every now and then she stole a covert glance across at him, I
heard his childish treble rising and falling, as his small finger moved
slowly down the sheet.

Suddenly it said, a little more distinctly:

'Please, sir, could you tell me the time?'

'Just over the quarter, Valentine,' I answered, waking up and looking at
my watch.

He rose and held out his hand.

'I didn't know it was so late,' he said, 'I must go now.'

But as our hands met another question occurred to him.

'Oh,' he exclaimed, 'you said you'd tell me why you liked to come and
sit here of an evening, like I do. Why?'

'So I did, Valentine,' I replied, 'but I've changed my mind. When you
are a big man, as old as I am, you come and sit here and you'll know.
But it isn't so pleasant a reason as yours, Valentine, and you wouldn't
understand it. Good-night.'

He raised his cap with an old-fashioned courtesy and trotted off,
looking however a little puzzled. Some distance down the path, he turned
and waved his hand to me, and I watched him disappear into the twilight.

I sat on for a while, thinking many thoughts, until across the rising
mist there rang a hoarse, harsh cry, 'All out, All out,' and slowly I
moved homeward.

CONTENTS

PAGE

READY-MONEY MORTIBOY. BY WALTER BESANT 3

THE FAMILY SCAPEGRACE. BY JAMES PAYN 15

THE WRECK OF THE 'GROSVENOR.' BY W. CLARK
RUSSELL 29

PHYSIOLOGICAL AESTHETICS AND PHILISTIA. BY GRANT
ALLEN 43

THE SHADOW OF A CRIME. BY HALL CAINE 53

THE SOCIAL KALEIDOSCOPE. BY GEORGE R. SIMS 75

DEPARTMENTAL DITTIES. BY RUDYARD KIPLING 91

JUVENILIA. BY A. CONAN D