the snow,
I breathed that fatal vow, love,
Of ninety years ago!

* * * * *

A "FISHING INTERROGATORY."--"What's this new French book on angling?"
asked Mrs. R., who is not very well up in the French language and
literature. "I believe," she went on, "it is called _The Bait Humane_. I
do hope it is against the cruel practice of putting live worms on a
hook, which is so cruel."--[It is supposed that our dear Mrs. R. has
heard some mention of _La Bete Humaine_.--ED.]

* * * * *

OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.

ADVICE to those who are about to give Easter presents--send to
MACMILLAN'S for "The Nursery 'Alice,'" who re-appears "as fresh as
paint," that is, with twenty-four of "Our Mr. TENNIEL'S" illustrations,
coloured by Miss GERTRUDE THOMSON, under his direction.

The _Universal Review_ is specially noteworthy for a short play by Mr.
W. L. COURTNEY, entitled, _Kit Marlowe's Death_. Mr. BOURCHIER of the
St. James's, so it is stated, is going to add this "Kit" to his
theatrical wardrobe. Some of the stage-directions,--such, for instance,
as "_They pour out wine in his cup, which he swallows_," and "_The
others laugh at_ NASH'S _expense_,"--are well worth all the money that
the spirited purchaser may have paid for this almost priceless work. In
the same Magazine, the coloured frontispiece of "_Count Tolstoy at
Home_," showing the Count, not labouring in the fields of literature,
but simply guiding the plough, is as good as the article on the
_Kreutzer Sonata_ is interesting; and interesting also is the paper
entitled, "Musings in an English Cathedral," by the Dean of
GLOUCESTER,--henceforth to be known as "A Musing Dean."

Mr. ANDREW LANG in _Longman's_--or rather _Lang-man's--Magazine_, is
still stopping at "The Sign of The Ship"--[The Baron moves "that the
words 'and Turtle' be inserted after 'Ship'"]--and as he has recently
been delighting us with wanders in the land of Ham, it will gratify his
readers to learn that he is now ceasing to be "All for 'Hur,'" in order
to join the author of She in a plot for a new romance. They are
undeterred by the eye of Detective RUNCIMAN. I wish success to Merry
Andrew Languid in this collaboration. In this same _Lang-man's Mag._,
Mr. VAL PRINSEP, A.R.A., having temporarily dissociated himself from the
paint-brush and canvas, by which he has made his name and fame,
continues his novel _Virginie_. In the present chapter he in