"'The World's Last Wonder' is the description of a woman who kept a secret under certain temptations to reveal it, which, as Mr. Tudor supposes, might have moved any daughter of Eve to break her faith."
'I haven't supposed anything of the kind,' said Charley.
'This secret, which we shall not disclose, as we would not wish to be thought less trustworthy than Mr. Tudor's wonderful woman—'
'We shall find that he does disclose it, of course; that is the way with all of them.'
—'Is presumed to permeate the whole three volumes.'
'It is told at full length in the middle of the second,' said Charley.
'And the effect upon the reader of course is, that he has ceased to interest himself about it, long before it is disclosed to him!
'The lady in question is engaged to be married to a gentleman, a circumstance which in the pages of a novel is not calculated to attract much special attention. She is engaged to be married, but the gentleman who has the honour of being her intended sposo——'
'Intended sposo!' said Charley, expressing by his upturned lip a withering amount of scorn—'how well I know the fellow's low attempts at wit! That's the editor himself—that's my literary papa. I know him as well as though I had seen him at it.'
Katie and Mrs. Woodward exchanged furtive glances, but neither of them moved a muscle of her face.