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Rh The bride was also good-looking; she was a tall, dark-eyed, dark-haired girl, somewhat timid but very tactful. He was not after her dowry, though it pleased him to know that she had something. He had connexions, and his wife came of good, influential people. This might, at the proper opportunity, prove useful. Always irreproachable and tactful, Nesletyev got on in his position not so fast that any one should envy him, nor yet so slow that he should envy any one else—everything came in the proper measure and at the proper time.

After their marriage there was nothing in the manner of Sergey Modestovich to suggest anything wrong to his wife. Later, however, when his wife was about to have a child, Sergey Modestovich established connexions elsewhere of a light and temporary nature. Serafima Aleksandrovna found this out, and, to her own astonishment, was not particularly hurt; she awaited her infant with a restless anticipation that swallowed every other feeling.

A little girl was born; Serafima Aleksandrovna gave herself up to her. At the beginning she used to tell her husband, with rapture, of all the joyous details of Lelechka's existence. But she soon found that he listened to her without the slightest interest, and only from the habit of politeness. Serafima Aleksandrovna drifted farther and farther away from him. She loved her little girl with the ungratified passion that other women, deceived in their husbands, show their chance young lovers.

"Mamochka, let's play priatki" (hide and seek), cried Lelechka, pronouncing the r like the l, so that the word sounded "pliatki."

This charming inability to speak always made Serafima Aleksandrovna smile with tender rapture. Lelechka then ran away, stamping with her plump little legs over the carpets, and hid herself behind the curtains near her bed.

"Tiu-tiu, mamochka!." she cried out in her sweet, laughing voice, as she looked out with a single roguish eye.

"Where is my baby girl?" the mother asked, as she looked for Lelechka and made believe that she did not see her.

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Page:Cartoon portraits and biographical sketches of men of the day.djvu/138

subject of our cartoon, Mr. Wilkie Collins, is one of the most successful novel writers of the day.

He is the eldest son of the late Mr. W. Collins, R.A., an artist of great ability in the delineation of rustic landscapes. Mr. Wilkie Collins was born in London in the year 1824, and received his education at a private school. He was associated with the late Charles Dickens in the celebrated amateur performances at Tavistock House. In 1859-60, his famous story of 'The Woman in White' appeared in 'All the Year Round.'

Besides 'The Woman in White,' Mr. Collins is the author of the following works of fiction: 'The Queen of Hearts,' 'No Name,' 'The Moonstone,' 'My Miscellanies,' 'Mr. Wray's Cash Box; or the Mask and the Mystery: a Christmas Sketch,' 'Man and Wife,' 'Poor Miss Finch', 'Miss or Mrs.,' 'Hide and Seek,' 'The Dead Secret,' 'Basil: a Story of Modern Life,' 'Armadale,' 'Antonina; or the Fall of Rome,' 'After Dark;' and he was, jointly with Charles Dickens, the author of two of the Christmas stories published as supplementary numbers of 'All the Year Round.'

He has written also a life of his father, Mr. W. Collins. R.A., published in 1848, entitled 'Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, with Selections from his Journal and Correspondence;' and a book of sketches called 'Rambles beyond Railways; or Notes in Cornwall taken a-Foot.'

As a writer of fiction, Mr. Collins is remarkable for the ingenuity of his plots, and for the air of mystery that he contrives to throw over commonplace events. He—in striking contrast to many writers of much greater eminence and merit—devotes the utmost care to keeping his story 'close together.' Everything in his books has a bearing on the issue of the plot. Not a window is opened, a door shut, or a nose blown, but, depend upon it, the act will have something to do with the end of the book. Yet no book of Mr. Collins's can compare in this respect with Scott's 'Bride of Lammer-