_Gleams of Memory; with Some Reflections_, is the happy title of Mr. JAMES PAYN'S last book, published by SMITH AND ELDER. The wit of the title flashes through every page of the single volume. Within its modest limits of space will be found not only some of the best stories of the day, but stories the best told. Not a superfluous word spoils the gems, which have been ruthlessly taken out of their setting and spread widecast through the circulation of many newspapers reviewing the work. My Baronite, fortunately, has not space at his disposal to join in this act of flat, though seductive, burglary. He advises everyone to go to the book itself. The reader will find himself enjoying the rare privilege of intimacy with a cultured mind, and a heart so kindly that temptation to say smart things at the expense of others, which underlies the possession of overflowing humour, is resisted, apparently without effort. Like the German Emperor or Mr. JUSTIN MCCARTHY, Mr. PAYN probably "could be very nasty if he liked." He doesn't like, and is therefore himself liked all the better. That little tale entitled _The Black Patch_, by GERTRUDE CLAY KER-SEYMER, introduces to the public a rather novel character in the person of a _Miss Clara Beauchamp_ an amateur female detective, to whom SHERLOCK HOLMES, when he chooses to "come out of his ambush," (for no one believes he fell over that precipice and was killed about a year ago,) ought at once to propose. It would be an excellent firm. CLARA would make our HOLMES happy, and a certain advertising medicine provider bearing the same name as the heroine of this sporting story would have another big chance of increasing his "hoardings." The Baron, skilled as he is in plots, owns to having been now and again puzzled over this one which clever CLARA the Clearer soon makes apparent to everybody. The story is a working out of the description of twins, how "each is so like both that you can't tell t'other from which." But mind you, not ordinary biped twins--oh dear no--they are.... No ... the Baron respects a lady's secret, and recommends the inquisitive to get the book and penetrate the mystery.