of singular literary value. I suggest that it might run to three or four thousand words, for which we would be ready to pay an honorarium of fifty guineas."
Vastly entertained by this proposition, and seeing
very clearly through the evident "hole in a mill-*stone,"
the novelist replied promptly:
"Dear Sir,—
"I cannot but admire the astute and businesslike character of your request; but I do not write 'reviews.' Nothing would ever persuade me to criticise the work of my contemporaries. Moreover, my book, 'The Master Christian,' is not at all on the same theme as 'The Eternal City.' Mr. Hall Caine treats of Rome,—I, of the Christ. The two are direct opposites.
"'The Eternal City' is recognizably inspired by and founded on Zola's 'Rome,' in which great work the 'religious message' of Mr. Caine's novel is fully set forth. The idea of a democratic Rome under a democratic Pope is Zola's 'own original' and belongs to Zola alone. Wherefore, let me suggest that you should ask M. Zola to review the work of his English confrère!"
When Sir Henry Drummond Wolff made Miss
