'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[29]
[PHYSIOLOGICAL ÆSTHETICS 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 Doyle[99]
[THE TRAIL OF THE SERPENT.] By M. E. Braddon[109]
[THE HOUSE OF ELMORE.] By F. W. Robinson[123]
[DAWN.] By H. Rider Haggard[135]
[HUDSON'S BAY.] By R. M. Ballantyne[151]
[THE PREMIER AND THE PAINTER.] By I. Zangwill[163]
[THE WESTERN AVERNUS.] By Morley Roberts[181]
[A LIFE'S ATONEMENT.] By David Christie Murray[193]
[A ROMANCE OF TWO WORLDS.] By Marie Corelli[206]
[ON THE STAGE AND OFF.] By Jerome K. Jerome[221]
[CAVALRY LIFE.] By 'John Strange Winter' (Mrs. Arthur Stannard)[239]
[CALIFORNIAN VERSE.] By Bret Harte[257]
[DEAD MAN'S ROCK.] By 'Q.'[269]
[UNDERTONES and IDYLS AND LEGENDS OF INVERBURN.] By Robert Buchanan[283]
[TREASURE ISLAND.] By Robert Louis Stevenson[297]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The images may be view enlarged by clicking on them. (note of ebooks transcriber.)