For a first-rate, short, well-constructed, and sensationally interesting story, let me recommend my readers to _The Peril of Richard Pardon_. Only one possible objection do I see to it, and that is a matter of my own private opinion, which is, that _Richard Pardon_ is the most irritating idiot ever created by an author. For the sake of the story, it was necessary that he should be weak; but he is such a very backboneless man, and yet quite strong enough to support the fabric of the plot. Then one is cleverly put off the scent by a certain _Richard Mortlock_, from whom the reader expects much more than ever comes out. The sequel of this capital novelette must be _Richard Mortlock_. I have quite forgotten to say that _The Peril of Richard Pardon_ is by Mr. B. L. FARJEON, whom I have to thank for making time pass too rapidly on many a previous occasion. The Hour Before Dinner Series--not that this is the genuine title, but it might be, and is a suggestion--is a real "boon and a blessing" to those who, like _Podgers_, in JOHN HOLLINGSHEAD'S immortal farce, "only have a 'our," not for "their dinner," but for their novel-reading throughout the day. FARJEON _soit béni!_ (Signed) _The Baron de Book-Worms._ * * * * * AN EVENTFUL WEEK. (_From a Prophetic Journal of Events, looming possibly somewhere a-head._) _Monday._--London, having now been without coal for sixteen weeks, and people having kept their kitchen-fires alight by burning their banisters and bedroom furniture, several noted West-end houses undertake to deliver the arms and legs of drawing-room chairs ("best screened"), at £26 5s. a ton for cash. _Tuesday._--All the petroleum in the country having now been exhausted for heating purposes, and Piccadilly being, in consequence, illuminated by a night-light in one lamp-post in every three, a "Discontented Ratepayer" commences a correspondence in the _Times_, commenting on the matter in a severe temper. _Wednesday._--Several Colliery Owners, in despair, descend into their own mines for the purpose of trying to raise some coal themselves, but their _employés_, declining to assist in hauling them up again, they are left to their fate, and nothing more is heard of them. _Thursday._--A Syndicate of Noblemen determine to try for coal on the spot, by sinking a mine in the middle of Belgrave Square, when, on arriving at a depth of 2500 feet, they come across an active volcano, which proves such a nuisance to the neighbourhood, that the Vestry is applied to by several parishioners to put a stop to it. On their sending the Sanitary Inspector to investigate the matter, he orders the mine to be closed. On this being done, the scheme collapses, several of the Syndicate, as a consequence, in despair emigrating to Tierra del Fuego.