DOUBLE ACROSTIC NO. 9. Deux petits mots d'un sens bien different, Correct Answers received from Lalla Rookh, Shark, Benedictine, Cetewayo, Black Beetle, G.P.O., Quite a Young Thing Too, What Never, Victor You Go, and Albatross. 10 correct and 37 incorrect. Total 47. Correct Answers received from: Quite a Young Thing Too, Tottie, Black Beetle, Der Teufel, What Never ? Alcestis. 6 correct and 43 incorrect. Total 49. ACROSTIC AND MESOSTICH RULES. 1. Each number of the St. James's Magazine will contain a Double Acrostic and a Mesostich. 11. In each competition Three Annual Prizes, in money (1st prize twenty-five guineas, 2nd prize ten guineas, 3rd prize five guineas), will be awarded to the three most successful solvers. III.-Special competitions will be held for guessing off ties (if any). Iv.-Prize-winners will be required to furnish their names and addresses for publication. v.-The same solver may win prizes in both competitions. VI.-Only one word can be accepted as the solution of each light. VII. Answers addressed to "The Acrostic Editor," 5, Friar Street, Ludgate Hill, E.C., must be posted in time to be received by the first post on the 10th of each month, or on the 11th, if the 10th falls on a Sunday. VIII. In accordance with the wishes of numerous Subscribers, the Acrostic and Mesostiches for March, June, September and December will be in French. HUBERT MAITLAND'S WRAITH. A NOVEL. BY FELIX HOLLAND. CHAPTER XXVII, M MOSS POLITIC. R. ABRAHAM MOSS sat alone in his office, with his ledger open before him; but he was not looking at the figures, nor at anything in particular. It was eight o'clock, and Mr. Kannyman, his clerk, had taken his leave some hours ago, his employer the while making a very great show of business. Experience, however, had taught Mr. Kannyman that he need be under no apprehension that the zeal which prompted his principal to this exceptional display of assiduity might lead to the taxing of his voluminous accounts. Mr. Moss had his books taxed most critically by a firm of accountants-Kannyman was such a dreamy old man. Yet neither he nor they had ever detected the slightest error in his figures. Mr. Moss often thus generously dismissed his employé while he remained to complete the arithmetical labours alone. Next morning the old clerk usually found traces of wine about the leather-covered table, and the extremely easy old-fashioned chairs and sofa which ornamented the room in a state of confusion that indicated either a very disturbed state of mind and body on the part of his industrious master, or the recent presence of merry com panions. The truth is, Mr. Moss was, as his face proclaimed, a young VOL. XXXVI. U man who had great difficulty in keeping the dragon under.. Much as he believed in the suppression of collective vice, his rich eastern blood was sometimes a source of trouble to him. On these occasions he was wont to immure himself here, hermitlike, cut off from the temptations of the delightfully wicked world. But whenever yet did the devil leave a saint alone? We all remember the terrible temptations to which St. Anthony was subjected in his cell. Thank heaven, they were vain; but then he was St. Anthony not St. Abraham Moss, the converted Jew. The world changes every day; but the devil is always the same. So, whenever Mr. Moss shut himself up thus, that evil adversary of the saints sent hither some syren of the ballet, or frail iniquity from the milliners' shops. Don't swear, my sceptical friend-I say the devil sent them ; else how could they have known that Mr. Moss was herealone, at this particular hour? Anyhow, they often came. You could not expect one whose oriental fathers were accustomed to treat their deadliest enemies hospitably when accident brought them within his tent to dismiss his fair, but unwelcome visitors with the unceremonious brutality of a Catholic monk. No, St. Abraham Moss set before them cake and wine, after the manner of his forefathers, and dismissed them after they had rested and refreshed themselves with a bland smile and a kiss of forgiveness and peace. There came a knock at the door, and, as he opened it, a very beautiful woman brushed haughtily past him, and took up her station against the wall at the furthermost side of the room, without so much as answering his greeting. "You are come at last, Pearl," said Mr. Moss; "I thought you might fear to meet me here alone." "I fear you!" exclaimed the lady, with a withering scorn, that was not wholly lost on him. He smiled, however, and made no retort. "Your letter informs me that you have a communication to make concerning Mr. Hubert. Be good enough to be brief." "I will. I am aware that you have long believed that the good old gentleman, your grandfather, as you choose to phrase him, is dead. It is not so, he is alive in London, and I can bring you to him whenever you please." |