o appeal to him, although what he learned in it proved
extremely useful to him in his literary career. His first
published book was a "Life" of his father, William Collins,
R.A., in 1847. The success of the work gave him an incentive
towards writing, and three years later he published an
historical romance, "Antonina, or The Fall of Rome." About
this time he made the acquaintance of Charles Dickens, who was
then editor of "Household Words," to which periodical he
contributed some of his most successful fiction. "No Name,"
published in 1862, depended less upon dramatic situations and
more upon analysis of character and the solution of a problem.
That he was successful in his purpose is chiefly evidenced by
the wide popularity the story received on its appearance. "The
main object of the story," he wrote in the introduction to the
first edition, "is to appeal to the reader's interest in a
subject which has been the theme of some of the greatest
writers, living and dead, but which has never been, and can
never be, exhausted, because it is a subject eternally
interesting to all mankind. A book that depicts the struggle
of a human creature under those opposing influences of Good
and Evil which we have all felt, which we have all known."
Like others of Collins' stories, "No Name" was successfully
presented on the stage. Wilkie Collins died on September 23,
1889.

_I.--Nobody's Children_

A letter from America, bearing a New Orleans stamp, had an extraordinary
effect on the spirits of the Vanstone family as they sat round the
breakfast table at Coome-Raven, in West Somersetshire.

"An American letter, papa!" exclaimed Magdalen, the youngest daughter,
looking over her father's shoulder. "Who do you know at New Orleans?"

Mrs. Vanstone, sitting propped up with cushions at the other end of the
table, started and looked eagerly at her husband. Mr. Vanstone said
nothing, but his air of preoccupation and his unusual seriousness, which
not even Magdalen's playfulness affected, proved clearly that something
was wrong. The mystery of the letter puzzled both Magdalen and her elder
sister Norah, and in particular aroused a feeling of uneasiness,
impossible to explain, in the mind of the old family friend and
governess, Miss Garth.

Though neither Mr. nor Mrs. Vanstone offered any explanation, Miss Garth
felt more