spect that the book contains more absorbing information than any
similar volume on the subject. With a fascinating and guileful style
this divine devil of an author leads us on to the spot where he can
point out to us that the only original feature of Christianity is the
crucifixion, and even that is foreshadowed in Hindoo legend, in which
Krishna dies, nailed by arrows to a tree. This book should be required
reading for the first class in isogogies.

Most of the scenes of "Daughters of the Rich"[31] are laid in Paris.
The plot hinges on mistaken identity and the whole is a very
ingenious detective story. The book begins rather than ends with a
murder, but that is because the tale is told backward. Through lies,
deceit, and treachery the woman in the case, one Sallie Malakoff,
betrays the hero into marriage with her. When he discovers her perfidy
he cheerfully cuts her throat from ear to ear and goes to join the
lady from whom he has been estranged. She receives him with open arms
and suggests wedding bells. No woman, she asserts, could resist a man
who has killed another woman for her sake. This is decidedly a Roman
point of view! Some of the action takes place in a house on the Avenue
Malakoff, which must have been near the _hotel_ of the Princesse de
Sagan and the apartment occupied by Miss Mary Garden.... A fat
manufacturer's wife confronts the proposal of a mercenary duke with an
epic rejoinder: "Pay a man a million dollars to sleep with my
daughter! Never!"... Again Saltus demonstrates how completely he is
master of the story-telling gift, how surely he possesses the power to
compel breathless attention.

"The Monster"[32] is fiction, incredible, insane fiction. The monster
is incest, in this instance _inceste manque_ because it doesn't come
off. On the eve of a runaway marriage Leilah Ogsten is informed by
her father that her intended husband is her own brother (he inculpates
her mother in the scandal). Leilah disappears and to put barriers
between her and the man she loves becomes the bride of another.
Verplank pursues. There are two fabulous duels and a scene in which
our hero is mangled by dogs. The stage (for we are always in some
extravagant theatre) is frequently set in Paris and the familiar
scenes of the capital are in turn exposed to our view. It is all mad,
full of purple patches and crimson splotches and yet, once opened, it
is impossible to lay the book down until it is completed. From this
novel Mr