"The Canterville Ghost," by Oscar Wilde. Published by John W. Luce & Co., Boston. "The Canterville Ghost" is one of those earlier works of Wilde that, like his plays, might have been "written on a bet." It is light and sparkling on the surface; it has characteristic depths beneath. The story is of the haunted Castle of Canterville leased for a home by the American minister, Mr. Hiram B. Otis, whose wife was Miss Lucretia R. Tappan of West Fifty-third street, and whose daughter, Virginia, is the heroine of the tale, with a ghost for the hero.

The ghost is a patient, amiable sort of creature, who quite fails to impress the practical American tenants. Persistently he pursues his methods; all the old tricks of chain-clanking, groaning and pale lights fail in effect, and the Otis family only respond with a disappointing pity for the spook and his sorry doom of haunting Canterville chase.

Finally in desperation the wraith appears to Virginia, who expresses her sympathy. Whereupon he explains to her his necessity of haunting the chase until the time

'When a golden girl can win

Prayer from the lips of sin;

When the barren almond bears,

And a little child gives away its tears.'

Virginia graciously assists in the accomplishment of these things, and the next day are found the bones of the original of the ghost, so to speak, which are duly interred in the old churchyard. For souvenir of her service to the ghost Virginia treasures a necklace of rare Venetian workmanship.

However, the substance of the story is less important than its telling. The satire is delightfully diverting. There is young Washington Otis, for instance, who has 'qualified himself for American diplomacy by leading the german at the Newport Casino for three successive seasons.' Also Mrs. Otis, who was quite English and 'an excellent example of the fact that we have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language.' And the table talk of the Otis family, which was that of 'cultured Americans of the better class, such as the immense superiority of Miss Fanny Davenport over Sarah Bernhardt as an actress; the difficulty of obtaining green corn, buckwheat cakes and hominy, even in the best English houses; the importance of Boston in the development of the world-soul,' and a few other like things.