s," writes Madame, "how a keen clever man like the Prince
attached so much importance to anything Blowitz said." For the
side-lights which it flashes on high life in Paris at a critical period
of the Republic the volume possesses exceptional value.

* * * * *

The subtleties of human motives, the fine problems of temperament, the
delicate interplay of masculine logic and feminine intuition, what are
these compared to blood, thunder, plots, counter-plots, earthquakes and,
from the final chaos, the salvage of the "sweetest woman on earth"
effected in the nick of time by a herculean and always imperturbable
hero? Mr. FRANK SAVILE is not out to analyse souls. The opening chapter
of _The Red Wall_ (NELSON) plunges us into a fray, irrelevant to the
narrative save in so far as it introduces _Dick Blake_ and _Eileen
O'Creagh_ and removes any possible doubt that might ever have been felt
as to their respective merits and their mutual suitability. That
preliminary complete, we proceed to the real business of the agenda, and
momentous, passionate, nefarious, diabolical, mysterious and incessantly
exciting business it is, covering the gamut of private emotions and
international complications. In such narratives I demand three things:
the first, that my author should combine a graphic (and grammatical)
style with the professional knack of imparting an air of probability to
his tale; the second, that things should go all wrong in the beginning
and come all right in the end; the third, that if any German schemers
are involved these should be eventually outwitted. Mr. SAVILE has
abundantly satisfied me in all particulars; although I incline to carp
at the opportuneness with which nature is made to erupt from time to
time, and I venture to suggest that men and women never were and are
probably never going to be like _Dick_ and _Eileen._ The book is,
however, of the sort which is to be read and enjoyed but not considered
further.

* * * * *

_Joe Quinney,_ the curiosity shop man in Mr. HORACE ANNESLEY VACHELL'S
_Quinneys'_ (MURRAY), is undoubtedly a "card," not unrelated, I should
say, to Mr. BENNETT'S _Machen._ He is an entertaining fellow with his
enthusiasms, his truculences, his fluctuating standards of honesty. Mr.
VACHELL didn't quite get me to believe in _Joe's_ expert knowledge,
which indeed seemed to be turned on and off in rather an arbitrary way
as the exigencie