without his knowledge, rescued alive by some
Americans, who are yachting off the coast. One of these Americans has
long loved Minnie Adams, the pretty American girl, but she and her
parents are fascinated by Sir Frederick's title and the expected
introduction to high-class English society. Minnie marries the would-be
murderer, and after a year of trouble and brutal treatment, severe
sickness ensues, during which she is nursed by her husband's first and
only legal wife. Finally Sir Frederick is murdered by an old comrade of
his debaucheries, and the two wives are equitably distributed between
the two American gentlemen.

--Messrs. Hurd & Houghton are doing good service in reissuing the
Riverside edition of the Waverley Novels.[P] The well-chosen proportion
of page and type and the excellent work of the Riverside press have
combined to make these volumes, what American books are too apt not to
be--a thing of permanent beauty. The publishers intend to bring out the
edition quite rapidly. Five volumes are ready, and the others will
follow at the rate of one each month. The present is the great era of
mediocre men. A horde of novel writers gain their living successfully
enough, and we take them up and talk about what they are doing, and how
their works compare with each other, as if their doings had real
importance. But what are they to the enduring genius of Abbotsford? He
has not only proved an inexhaustible source of delight to two
generations of readers, but has founded an industry--the publication of
his works--which is likely to be for scores of years to come a permanent
source of livelihood to hundreds.

* * * * *

It is evident that we have not a new light of poetry in Mr. Voldo.[Q] He
tells us that this is a first attempt, and it may well be the last, for
he seems to have been led--and misled--into the practice of poetic
expression by a certain gift, in his case fatal, of rhythm. The flow of
his lines is far superior to the meaning or the expression. In fact the
latter is so involved and farfetched, that the former is often entirely
obscured. To find out what it is he tries to tell us would really be a
painful process, and the few attempts we have made were too immediately
fatiguing to produce any results. Two of his poems are worth reading,
one because its versification is well managed, and the other because its
story is simple and naturally told. It is a relief after so many pages