o be married in a fortnight, when the frightful
act is interposed which transforms the whole aspect of the world for
the young man. The reader must discover for himself the key to the
tragedy. The book is one of those which the phenomenal success of
"Called Back" summoned into existence. That clearly proved that the
public loved a mystery and a sensational _denouement_, and ever since
the annals of crime have been rummaged for horrors. But "As it was
Written" has an advantage over other works of its class in a certain
charm and freshness, not only from its Jewish setting, but from the
fervid youthful feeling which gives a pleasing and natural touch to the
narrative.

Warren Bell, the hero of Mr. Julian Hawthorne's "Love--or a Name," finds
himself, at first presentation, on his way to offer marriage to Miss
Nell Anthony, who has just been left motherless, and to whom he feels
that he owes this manly tribute. He acquits his conscience of this duty,
but performs it nevertheless in such a jerky, unlover-like fashion that
few young women, certainly not one of Miss Anthony's force of character,
could have been imposed upon. "I thought you l-loved me," said he. Which
surely is not the way to win a fair lady. Much to his comfort, as well
as to his ingenuous surprise, he is refused, and goes back to New York,
having renounced "Love" and decided to care only for a "Name." Mr.
Hawthorne seems to have made an effort to work into the story of his
hero a faithful account of New York "ring"-management and official
corruption. Warren Bell finds a patron in Mr. Drayton, who has all sorts
of ambitious schemes to further, and offers his committees and his
confederates a "big game" in the way of "water-works" stocks, and the
like. These pictures of corrupt judges and dishonest corporations have
some probability: they show us many clearly-developed sensual and
mercenary scoundrels; they are all, very possibly, portraits from life;
but they are all excessively crude in their likenesses and inexpressibly
wearisome. It is a distasteful and unsavory world to which the author
introduces us: if he wishes to show us consummate rascals we insist that
he should wrap them in some veil of decency, if not of art, and not fill
his pages with incidents and talk which properly belong to the
police-court. Mr. Hawthorne finally rescues his hero from the ignoble
set from whom he has luckily escaped winning a very bad name, and makes
him seek his happiness in