"I like it muchly," quoth the Baron, finishing BARING GOULD'S
_Noëmi_:--
"This scribe for publishers ne'er writes in vain;
His pen prolific, Baring Goulden grain."
And _Noëmi_, if a trifle less Gouldish than Weymanish, is a tale
of stirring times, when to plunder, hack, stab, and string up a few
unfriendly fellow-creatures, who would have done the same by you if
the turn of luck had been theirs, came in the day's work; while to
roast an offender whole "all alive O," just for once and away, was,
so to speak, "quite a little 'oliday," as a special and exceptional
treat. And all these jocular barbarities were occasioned, not by any
religious fervour, or by intolerant persecuting zeal, excusing itself
on the score of anxiety for future spiritual welfare of victim, but
simply out of pure cussedness, and for the humour of the thing, much
as, now-a-days, the bowie-knife and the cord are used "down West."
Personally, the Baron gives not full credit to all these tales of
mediæval cruelty, but the "scenes and properties" serve an excellent
artistic purpose, and so he loves them as he loves such romances as
those of _She who must be obeyed_, and _Treasure Island_. Therefore
here's to the lass _Noëmi_, and, as she herself would of course say,
in response to the toast, "You'll like me the more you _Know-o'-me_."
[Illustration]
Another capital story by FRANK BARRETT, entitled _A Set of Rogues_,
is strongly recommended by the faculty; the faculty in question being
that of deciding upon what sort of book is certain to suit the tastes
of the majority of romance-readers, who, aweary of the plodding
every-day business in this "so-called nineteenth century," like to
get away from it occasionally and live, just for a change, in the
seventeenth. Stirring tale this of _A Set of Rogues_, without a dull
chapter in it: and just enough human sentiment in it to soften down
the roguery. In fact, so skilfully is the tale told that the reader
will find himself siding with "their knavish tricks"; for the hearts
of these rogues are in the right place, though their bodies very
seldom were, and their heads never, in the noose. But "no noose is
good noose," and so let the honest reader procure the book from INNES
& CO. of Bedford Street; he will come to love the scoundrels, and will
ask, with the Baron, "What on earth became of that captivating _Don
Sanchez?_" and another query, "Was the villainous old Steward really
killed?" Perhaps the author is reserving the Don and the Steward for
another romance. If so, "What will he do with 'em?" asks the