_Culch._ (_to himself, as he walks hurriedly on_). I only saved myself in time. I don't _think_ MAUD noticed anything--she couldn't nave been so innocent and indifferent if she had.... And HYPATIA won't enlighten her any further now--after what she knows. It's rather a relief that she _does_ know.... She took it very well, poor girl--_very_ well. I expect she is really beginning to put up with PODBURY--I'm sure I _hope_ so, sincerely! * * * * * OUR BOOKING-OFFICE. [Illustration] "I dearly love reading a ghost-story," quoth the Baron, "when, as the song says, 'The lights are low, And the flickering shadows, Softly come and go.' And I did hope that _Cecilia de Noël_ was going to be just the very sort of book for a winter's fireside. Disappointed. There is a ghost in it, and there's _Cecilia de Noël_ (good Christmassy name, isn't it?) who instructs the ghost in his neglected Catechism; for the ghost is as much an Atheist as the unbelieving Sadducee in this same story, who, after all, is not converted. 'Alas! Poor Ghost!' Very poor ghost! Bring me another ghost!" cries the Baron. No other ghost is forthcoming to the invocation, but a book is placed in his hands entitled _Fourteen to One_. The Baron was about to dismiss it as a betting book--judging by its title--when his eye caught the name of ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS as authoress. So he read many of the short stories therein. She has in many places the touch of DICKENS. All are good; but for pathos, keen observation, and dramatic surprise, "give me," says the Baron, emphatically, "the short story of _The Madonna of the Tubs_." Admirable! Those who take and act upon the Baron's tip, will do well to ask for _Fourteen to One_, and see that they get it. What are the Baron's sentiments as to Christmas things? He refused to have anything to say to games and cards. Cards--well, we all know whose books some puritanical party said _they_ were. But these comic and artistic Christmas Cards of RAPHAEL TUCK do not come into that category; and same is to be said of Messrs. HILDESHEIMER's, so there's an end on't. Henceforth, says the Baron, "No Cards." "Come to me, O ye children," as some one sings--ARTHUR CECIL for choice--and it might be adapted for the occasion by the Publishers of _Chatterbox_, in which box there's a prize. Messrs. ROUTLEDGE go in for the old, old tales. They've kindly given _Mother Hubbard_ a new dress; and as for their Panorama of the "Beasteses," it is like a picture-walk in the Zoo. _Some Historic Women_, well selected by DAVENPORT ADAMS, who should have styled it _Christmas Eves by Adams_. With Mrs. MOLESWORTH's _Bewitched Lamp_ the Baron's Assistant is much pleased. Pictures ought to have been in oil, and there should have been a Wickéd Fairy in it,--but there isn't.