THE MYSTERIOUS MAN.

Tun Mysterious Man is a goodhearted Irishman, of better birth than fortune, who, thinking trade a degradation, is persuaded by his friends to come to England on a matrimonial speculation. • He comes, however, as Count Bundledoff, a German nobleman ; be- cause he found, when he read the newspapers, that "even if folks wanted nothing more than a mere sarvint-wench, they put at the end uv it—No Irish need apply." The title of the story, and much of its.somewhat farcical humour, arise from the confusion created by the brogue and character of Terence O'Sullivan, contrasted with the pretensions of the foreign Count ; as his pursuit of Julia Fig- gins, a musical heiress, his adventures in reply to a matrimonial advertisement, and other dilemmas of broad absurdity, produce the ludicrous incidents of the piece. Besides his own marriage, the Mysterious Man is also connected with another plot, which partly involves a love-affair ; but its main action arises from the rascality of a pair of lawyers in concealing a will, and its detection, in a measure through the means of Count Bundledoff.

In general character The Mysterious Man resembles its prede- cessor Ben Bradshaw. The incidents are rather derived from the stage than from life ; the persons, though real, are peculiar, repre- senting the oddities or singularities of town society rather than any general class ; and this farce-like air of actors and events is further increased by the author's artificially smart style of writing. The novel, however, exhibits improvement. The story is more simple in its elements, and less forced in its conduct ; it may even be pronounced more natural, bearing in mind the models of the writer ; whilst in the graver parts it displays greater power with less effort. But the nature which the writer copies, being better adapted to broad comedy than to fiction even when he draws direct from nature, and the style of The fiction, Alan being essentially the same as that of the author's previous work, it may probably produce the usual effect of repetitions.

The section of most interest relates to the fortune of Fanny Latimer and her brother Edwin; which is put in jeopardy by the roguery of Marks and Silvered, the two country•lawyers. The

original motive for suppressing the grandfather's will, and still more the conduct subsequently pursued by old Marks, are not very pro- bable ; and the behaviour of the two rogues when the chance of discovery is impending over them, is not consistent with the cha- racter of men of the world in these times, still less with that of sharp professional men. The episode of the two lawyers skulking, in the purlieus of Lambeth in the society of the low town-scamps Stubbs and Smith, belongs to another age and a much lower. grade of society : but, when we pass over this inconsistency, the scenes are sketched with great power, as well as great knowledge of the place and persons described. The following narrative of the murder of old Marks by Silvereel and his associates, strikes us as possessing the force of Boz without his rather obvious ars serfbendi.

"Silvereel and Smith quitted the room ; Stubbs staid behind ; but never mortal man beheld more striking symptoms of anxiety and amazement on a

human countenance than his betrayed when they had left the room. He wrung his hands and bit his lip, and listened so intently that he durst not breathe.

"There were steps upon the stair—and when they ceased the door above was opened : there was a moment's pause, and then the miser's voice, and thenn, the muttered tones of Silvereel ; and then there was a rush, and a scuffle, and a heavy fall, and a sort of stifled moan. It was not a shriek, nor a groan, nor a prayer for pity, nor a cry for help, and yet it seemed to express all these in one. There was a heavy tramping, and a struggle as of men in violent exer-

cise, and then all was silent. In a few seconds there was the opening of a window—and then a dull heavy plash in the water beneath, as though a auk

of grain or some such ponderous body had fallen into it. A pause of a few seconds ensued, and Silvered and Smith came down stairs hastily—but sober now—quite sober. • • • • " The fabled Gorgon's head turned all who gazed on it to stone. There was something in the face of Silvered which seemed to have a similar effect upon the young man who had awaited their return. He had been pale,

intensely pale before ; but it was not until he caught the eye of Silvered that the muscles of his face assumed that same rigidity, and settled into

the aspect of fixed horror which one might fancy the effect of the Medusa upon its victims. Stubbs turned from Silvereel to his associate, and, if possible,. the terror of his countenance increased. They sat down in that miserable

room, and long and steadfast was their gaze at one another. They listened in breathless silence. They seemed to fear some terrible effect from that dull, heavy plash ; but nothing came of it. Scared at that heavy plash, they had

immediately rushed down stairs from the upper room. • •

"Silvereel and his associates passed a night of inconceivable horror. It was in vain that Smith and Stubbs went alternately across the narrow street to a small public-house, and procured measure after measure of spirituous liquors; it

would not do—they could not get intoxicated. They sat up all night long— they would not go to bed—they durst not separate—they felt more confident when they were all together. When Smith or Stubbs went over for the liquor„ Silvereel and the other came to the itreet-door, and watched the messenger. When Smith went down for coals, Stubbs must go to light him, and Silvered made some excuse to follow. As the night deepened, an intense silence came over all things; what few noises had been heard in that remote neighbourhood died at length away. There was no wind lobe heard, and in the stillness of the

night nothing was to be distinguished but the ,dull popple of the tide as it gurgled and splashed beneath the window. They heaped the miserable grate with coals; but the coals seemed only to overburden the fire without animating it. They made glass after glasi of grog; but the liquor seemed only to enmity,. without exhilarating then].

"As they drank, a leaden taciturnity appeared to settle more steadily upon them ; every one of them execrated in his heart his companions's silence, yet spoke he not himself.

"As the late, chilly hours came on, they shivered and shuddered with the cold, yet no one thought of going to bed; and yet every one wondered that his com- panions did not propose so doing. But where could they go ? There was only Mr. Marks's bed ; and all three together, much less one alone, would never think of sleeping upon that. "Their eyes began to ache with weariness—got sore with watching—but still they sat in silence in that little parlour.

"At length the grey light of early dawn began to illuminate the place, and to display to the eyes of each of them the deadly paleness of his companions. In

that grey dawn they looked preternaturally pale; not only Silvereel, whose dull, cadaverous complexion, has been often alluded to, but even Smith and Stubbs, the incorrigible mulberry nose of the latter having assumed a genuine copper- colour.

"As the day approached, a sickly yellow fog crept upwards from the surface of the river, and made the interior of the chamber look more ghastly than ever, with its pallid; spectral-looking habitants. As the day-light became more decided, however, the anxious watchers seemed to feel fresh confidence, and betook themselves to sleep ; Smith and Stubbs stretching themselves upon the floor, and Silvereel giving himself to slumber (such as it was) in the chair."