After All;

her wrongs and soothe his own guilty memories—with what success we have seen — the memory of his sneaking act continually haunting him with its tormenting taunts . He could not look steadily into the trustful eyes of Olivia , much as he loved them , for it made him feel so totally unworthy of her pure soul , and he seemed to himself like an irreclaimable evil spirit stealing away her life .

As for the brutal Bulliker , he was incapable of any such feelings ; if he had ever had any resembling them they had long ago died within him . His exulting joy was unalloyed with remorse , and he g leefully chuckled at the success of his devilish plans . When his wife questioned him about Humberton ' s misadventure , the unfeeling coward answered the uncomplaining and pitiable woman with a heavy blow . She winced with the painand felt how powerless

, was her miserable effort to assist any who were suffering from the unscrupulous machinations of the cruel thing she almost hated to call " husband " ; that name simply meant infamy to herself , and she wondered how she had ever been weak enough to become his wife—how it was she had not before found out the real character of the slimy reptile .

( To be continued . )

Literary Gossip.

LITERARY GOSSIP .

TRUTH is stranger than fiction . The point of this ancient aphorism is specially emphasised in a series of stories entitled " Romance andReality , " which Mr . Horace Weir has prepared for publication . The dramatic incidents of these tales are not drawn from the imagination , but are supplied by the bare unsympathetic newspaper accounts of actual occurrences . Miss Rosa . Mackenzie Kettleauthoress of more than a dozen high class

, novels of sterling worth , is about to re-issue her popular story , " My Home in the Shires , " in one handsome volume . This romance , full of prose poetry , and picturesque pen portraiture of pleasant landscapes and interesting characters , faithful to life in every particular , has made Miss Kettle more friends , perhaps , than any other of her works , ancl we are very glad to see another edition called for . Fiction of this healthy class can never be over

circulated . Some time ago we alluded to the eminently practical papers which were appearing in the pages of the Railway Official Gazette , under the title of the "Duties and Difficulties of Railway Officials . " Their author , Mr . James Little Macleanof the Caledonian Company ' s servicehas revised the articles

, , for publication in volume form , ancl at no distant date they will be issued thus separately by Messrs . McCorquodale and Co ., of Cardington-street . To all connected with the iron road the book will be invaluable , as Mr . Maclean writes from the high standpoint of large experience , and is moreover a . cultured