George Silberman's Explanation.

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to be of a timidly silent character under misconstruction, to have an inexpressible and even a morbid dread of becoming sordid or worldly. He is afterwards put to school, told to work his way, and, as time goes on, becomes a Foundation Boy on a good foundation, and is preached at on Sundays by Brother Hawkyard and other expounders of the same kidney. Working still harder, he at last obtains a scholarship at Cambridge, where he lives a secluded life, and studies diligently. Knowing himself to be "unfit for the noisier stir of social existence," he applies his mind to the clerical profession, and at laut is presented by Lady Fareway to a living worth two hundred a year. Adelina, the only daughter of Lady Fareway, pursues her studies under his direction; and a strong but undeclared affection springs up between them. But the young clergyman, conscious that her family and fortune place him far beneath her, and feeling that her merits are far greater than his, resolves upon self-sacrifice, and quietly sets to work to turn the current of her love into another channel. For this purpose, he introduces to her Mr. Granville Wharton, another pupil of his, and contrives, in various ways, to interest them in each other. The object is accomplished, and, in little more than a year, they come before him, hand in hand, and ask to be united in marriage. As they are both of age, and as the young lady has come into possession of a fortune in her own right, he does not hesitate to do so; but the consequences to himself are disastrous. Lady Fareway has had ambitious projects for her daughter, and indignantly charges George Silverman with taking a percentage upon Adelina's fortune as a bribe for putting Mr. Wharton in possession of it. With the old cry of," You worldly wretch!" she demands that he should resign his living, contumeliously dismisses him from her presence, and pursues him for many years with bitter animosity. But Adelina and her husband stand by him, and at length he obtains a college-living in a sequestered place, lives down the suspicions and calumnies that have dogged his steps, and pens his "Explanation."

Sylvia.

A girl at the farm-house of Hoghton Towers, where George Silverman is placed by Mr. Hawkyard, after the death of his father and mother.

Wharton, Mr. Granville. Pupil of George Silverman, and married by him to Adelina Fareway.

New Uncommercial Samples.

[PUBLISHED IN ALL THE YEAP ROUND, IN 1889.]

A SMALL STAR IN THE EAST.

John. A boiler-maker, living in the neighborhood of Ratcliffe and Stepney, who obtains employment but fitfully and rarely, and is forced to live on the work of his wife.

Poodles. A comical mongrel dog, found starving at the door of the "East London Children's Hospital," and taken in and fed, since which he has made it his home. On his neck he wears a collar presented him by an admirer of his mental endowments, and bearing the legend, "Judge not Poodles by external appearances."

A LITTLE DINNER IN AN HOUR.

Bullfinch. A gentleman, who, having occasion to go to the seaside resort of Namelesston with a friend for the transaction of some business, proposes that they should dine at the Temeraire. They accordingly drive to that house, and order a little dinner, which is to be ready punctually in one hour. They return promptly, but try in vain to eat and drink what is set before them, and come to the conclusion that no such ill-served, ill-appointed, ill-cooked, nasty little dinner could be got for the money anywhere else under the sun.

Cocker, Mr. Indignation. A dissatisfied diner at the same house, who disputes the charges in his bill.

MR. BARLOW.

Barlow, Mr. An irrepressible instructive monomaniac, who knows every thing, didactically improves all sorts of occasions, and presents

Limself in all sorts of aspects and under all kinds of disguises; so named from an all-knowing tutor in Thomas Day's juvenile story of "Sandford and Merton."

ON AN AMATEUR BEAT.

Poodles. A mongrel dog attached to the "East London Children's Hospital." See " A Small Star in the East."

I find him making the round of the beds, like a house-surgeon, attended by another dog, — -a friend,-who appears to trot about with him in the character of his pupil-dresser. Poodles is anxious to make me known to a pretty little girl, looking wonderfully healthy, who has had a leg taken off for cancer of the knee. "A difficult operation," Poodles intimates, wagging his tail on the counterpane, "but perfectly successful, as you see, dear sir." The patient, patting Poodles, adds, with a smile, "The leg was so much trouble to me, that I am glad it's gone." I never saw any thing in doggery finer than the deportment of Poodles when another little girl opens her mouth to show a peculiar enlargement of the tongue. Poodles (at that time on a table, to be on a level with the occasion) looks at the tongue (with his own sympathetically out) so very gravely and knowingly, that I feel inclined to put my hand on my waistcoatpocket, and give him a guinea, wrapped in paper.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Ah! who shall lift that wand of magic power,

And the lost clew regain?

The unfinished window in Aladdin's tower

Unfinished must remain.

LONGFELLOW.

THE first number of this work, which closes the series of Dickens's novels, was Issued by Messrs. Chapman and Hall, on the 1st of April, 1870, with two illustrations on wood from drawings by S. L. Fildes. The story was to be completed In twelve monthly parts; but the third part had been published only a few days when death stopped the writer's hand for ever. Three additional numbers, however, were left in manuscript, making just one-half of the entire story.

...

What Dickens wrote of Thackeray's unfinished novel ("Denis Duval") is true, also, of his own, that it is "very sad . . . in its evidences of matured designs never to be accomplished; of intentions begun to be executed, and destined never to be completed; of careful preparation for long roads of thought that he was never to traverse, and for shining goals that he was never to reach." "In respect of earnest feeling," he added, "far-seeing purpose, character, incident, and a certain loving picturesqueness blending the whole, I believe it to be much the best of all his works." If this high praise cannot be awarded to "Edwin Drood," a place among the best of his works may at least be assigned to it. Yet it cannot be said of Dickens, as he said of Thackeray, "that he was in the healthiest vigor of his powers when he wrought on this last labor:" on the contrary, he complained that his thoughts did not flow so freely as formerly, and that composition was a task which tired and worried him. Besides this, he was troubled by a fear, that, in the early numbers, he had too plainly foreshadowed the conclusion of the story. There was, however, no approach to completeness in the fragment as he left it; and it was rumored that the tale would be finished by Mr. Wilkie Collins, until Messrs. Chapman and Hall announced, in a letter to "The Times," that no other writer could be permitted by them to complete it. Still a sequel has been published in the United States, without their authorization, or that of Mr. Dickend's family, entitled "John Jasper's Secret." The writers (Mr. Henry Morford

and others) assert, that hints had been unwittingly supplied by Mr. Dickens "for a much closer estimate of the bearings of those portions remaining unwritten than he could probably have believed while in life;" and they claim to have carried out, however feebly, what they have fully traced and identified as the inten tion of the writer, every intrinsic and extrinsic fact and hint being carefully con sidered."

CHARACTERS INTRODUCED.

Bazzard, Mr. Clerk to Mr. Grewgious, over whom he possesses a strange power. He is a pale, puffy-faced, dark-haired person of thirty, with big, dark eyes wholly wanting in lustre, and with a dissatisfied, doughy complexion, that seems to ask to be sent to the baker's. The secret of his influence over Mr. Grewgious is thus explained by that gentleman in a conversation he has with Miss Rosa Bud:

...

"We were speaking of Mr. Bazzard. What do you think Mr. Bazzard has done?"

"Oh, dear!" cried Rosa, drawing her chair a little nearer, and her mind reverting to Jasper,-"nothing dreadful, I hope?"

"He has written a play," said Mr. Grewgious in a solemn whisper,-"a tragedy."

Rosa seemed much relieved.

"And nobody," pursued Mr. Grewgious in the same tone," will hear, on any account whatever, of bringing it out."

Rosa looked reflective, and nodded her head slowly, as who should say, "Such things are, and why are they!"

"Now, you know," said Mr. Grewgious, "I could n't write a play."

"Not a bad one, sir?" asked Rosa innocently, with her eyebrows again in action.

"No. If I was under sentence of decapitation, and was about to be instantly decapitated, and an express arrived with a pardon for the condemned convict Grewgious, if he wrote a play, I should be under the necessity of resuming the block, and begging the executioner to proceed to extremities, meaning," said Mr. Grewgious, passing his hand under his chin, "the singular number, and this extremity."

Rosa appeared to consider what she would do if the awkward supposititious case were hers.

"Consequently," said Mr. Grewgious, "Mr. Bazzard would have a sense of my inferiority to himself under any circumstances; but when I am his master, you know, the case is greatly aggravated."

Mr. Grewgious shook his head seriously, as if he felt the offence to be a little too much, though of his own committing

"How came you to be his master, sir?" asked Rosa.

"A question that naturally follows." said Mr. Grewgious. "Let's talk. Mr. Bazzard's father, being a Norfolk farmer would have furious'y laid about him