The particular Baronitess to whom the Baron handed over _The Holy Estate_ (a novel in three volumes, by two authors, W. H. WILKINS and FRANK THATCHER, published by HUTCHINSON & CO.), says that in explanation it is called by its authors "a study in morals," but where the morals come in or come out it would be difficult to say. Apparently, in the majority of the characters, there is a singular lack of any virtuous quality. A young innocent girl marries a gay soldier and goes out to India. Here she finds herself placed in a land where principles are decidedly at a discount. Her husband turns out, to put it mildly, a blackguard (with a big, big "B"), and his friends are of the same fascinating type. In a typical, melodramatic, "Adelphi villain," there is something almost wholesome as compared with the modern bad man of "_Yellow-Book_" fiction, who is simply revolting. [By the way, interpolates the Baron, the latest _Yellow Book_ is comparatively quite decorous and without an Aubrey-Beardsley illustration!!] Of course, the hero and heroine of _The Holy Estate_ have to pass through the fiery ordeal of Indian Society; how they come out of it the reader may discover. But as pessimism is the artistic order of the day, they are not allowed to finish well and "live happy ever afterwards." My Baronitess adds, with a frown, "It cannot be called pleasant reading, nor is there in it any sign of the genius of a DAUDET or a ZOLA which might be accepted as, in some sort, a literary excuse for its being brought into existence." (Signed) THE BARON DE BOOK-WORMS. * * * * * As Broad as Long. _First Critic._ Shortness now rules in Novel and in Song, Which, like men's clothes, are cut and made to order. _Second Critic._ It may be Tale and Lay are now less long, But they make up for it by growing broader. * * * SPORTING PARADOX.--ROSEBERY was more of a "favourite" when he was an "outsider." Perhaps, like his _Sir Visto_, when an outsider again--which he seems likely soon to be--he will be safer to back for a "place," if not for an absolute win. * * * BEST SOLUTION OF MINISTERIAL DIFFICULTIES.--_Dis_solution. * * * * * [Illustration: A FORTIORI. _Mamma._ "NOT ASLEEP YET, GEORGE?" _George._ "NO; I CAN'T GET TO SLEEP BECAUSE JACK SAYS HE'S GOT CRUMBS IN HIS BED. HE COULDN'T MAKE MORE FUSS IF IT WAS THE WHOLE LOAF!"] * * * * * DAUDET! (_An old Comic Song re-sung for the benefit of a French Critic._) ["As for English women, their looks and their dress, the less said the better. They have, in M. DAUDET'S opinion, neither beauty nor taste."--_The Times' Correspondent in Paris._] AIR--"_Doo-dah!_"