The Lost Stradivarius. By J. Meade Falkner. (Blackwood and Sons.)—This
is a weird story, conceived in something of the spirit of a Greek tragedy, but with a modern setting. Poor John Mal- travers has the bad luck of having among his ancestors a very disreputable person, who, not'content with the evil that he has worked in his lifetime, pursues his mischievous career after death. The unfortunate man has a great liking for music, and evokes the ghost of his evil-minded ancestor by playing a piece which had been closely connected with his career ; and then he finds—being a student at Magdalen Hall—a very precious Stradivarius. Here the element of human weakness comes in—fate never dooms a wholly innocent man—for he keeps the violin when he ought to have handed it over to the college authorities. " Say, prudes in virtue, what would ye have done ? " However, he keeps it, and woes unnumbered spring from the deed. The story is far from being cheerful, but it is distinctly effective in its way.
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