FICTION, EARLY AND LATE. 157 



Hearts," in three volumes, was brought out 

 by the same firm. In the book of extracts, 

 from which I have already drawn, there are 

 four or five reviews preserved. They are all 

 of the same opinion, and it is not a flattering- 

 opinion. The Graphic admitted that there 

 was one scene drawn with considerable power. 

 One need not dwell longer upon this work. 

 JefFeries, in fact, was describing a society of 

 which he knew absolutely nothing, and was 

 drawing on his imagination for a picture 

 which he tendered as one of contemporary 

 manners. At this juncture nay, at every 

 point of his literary career, he wanted some- 

 one to stand at his elbow and make him tear 

 up everything everything that pretended to 

 describe a society of w r hich he knew nothing. 

 The hero appears to have been a wicked noble- 

 man. Heavens ! what did this young pro- 

 vincial journalist know of wicked noblemen? 

 But he had read about them, when he was a 

 boy. He had read the sensational romances 

 in which the nobleman was, at that time, 

 always represented as desperately wicked. In 

 these later days the nobleman of the penny 



