THE NOVEL-READER'S VADE MECUM.
Question. I believe you are a very rapid reader of fiction?
Answer. Certainly. My average rate is three and a half volumes a day. This gives me plenty of time for meals, sleep and skipping.
Through Booking, First-Class and otherwise.
Q. Do you skip a great deal?
A. A very great deal. For instance, I have skipped about two-thirds of Isa, by the Editor of the North-Eastern Daily Gazette, in spite of it being only in a couple of volumes, and containing for an introduction the following rather lengthy sentence:—"If the devil were in a laughing mood, what could seem more grimly humorous to him than the vision of a fair young spirit striving consciously after ethereal perfection, but overweighted unconsciously by the bonds and fetters of human infirmity and passion, and dragged at last headlong down the abysmal descent to perdition?" "Abysmal" is good—very good.
Q. Well, and what of the book itself?
A. Chiefly horrors. Nightmare after a pork-chop supper I fancy. Nelly Jocelyn (Widow), is a welcome contrast. One of the best things Miss Jean Middlemass has done. The character of Paul Cazalet capitally drawn and foreign local colouring admirable.