"What so interests you?" asked the visitor. Replied the Baron, "_Japhet in Search of a Father_. I have not read it since my school days." "You find it old-fashioned, eh?" "Well," answered the Baron, "the first few chapters are certainly old-fashioned, and recall to my memory the italicised, punning style of THEODORE HOOK and of _Tom and Jerry_. But Captain MARRYAT soon gets away from this sort of thing; and when he has once fairly started his hero and his companion on their adventures, the interest of the story is never allowed to flag for a minute. I may add that I have not enjoyed any modern story of adventure so much as I have this one--always barring the romances of RIDER HAGGARD, STEPHENSON, 'Q.,' SHORTHOUSE, and PARKER--as there is about it an old Georgian-era flavour, with its duels, its gambling-houses, its _Tom-and-Jerry_ episodes, its occasional drop into melodrama, its varied characters of the period, its animal spirits and 'go,' that makes it--to me, at least--thoroughly fascinating." The illustrations, by H. M. BROCK--which are specified as separately the property of Messrs. MACMILLAN--bring vividly before the reader the manners and customs of the time. "In these days of morbid yellow-jaundiced sensationalism, and of 'The New Woman,' I am delighted," quoth the Baron, "to recommend, and strongly, too, this first of the series of Captain MARRYAT'S works, now in course of republication _chez_ MACMILLAN." The visitor thanked his noble friend, and withdrew. Then the Baron finished the novel. "Good!" quoth the Baron, closing the book with regret at parting with a long-forgotten but now recovered friend; "but 'tis odd how one lives and learns. I do not remember having ever heard that _Bottom_ the weaver had been christened 'WILLIAM' by SHAKSPEARE. Nor can I find that bully _Bottom_ was so addressed by his friends. And if I have missed it, how came WILLIAM to be the _prénom_ of the Athenian weaver in the time of _Theseus_ and _Hippolyta_! I should as soon expect to discover that Hercules was known to his companions as Henry Hercules. However, this by the way, and only _à propos_ of a remark as to _William Bottom_, the weaver, made by MARRYAT. I anticipate with pleasure re-making the acquaintance of _Jacob Faithful_ and _Midshipman Easy_."