'You may know that Mrs Humphry Ward is one of my literary bugbears. I have never really read any of her much-lauded works, but from casual glances into one or two of them & the perusal of copious reviews, I have felt instinctively that she was No Good. A new book of hers, a short one, The Story of Bessie Costrell, will appear in three months time & I have been promising myself the pleasure of scalping the woman. The tale runs through Cornhill in three instalments & in order that my onslaught might appear immediately after publication of the book, contemporaneously with the fulsome flatteries which the daily press is certain to shake out, I determined to read the thing carefully in serial form, and prepare a reasoned expos?. I have just returned from the Free Library. The mischief is, I find the first instalment damn well done. It is beautifully arranged and selected. The writing, without being great, is dignified and decent; and it is perfectly clear that she knows what she is talking about, to wit, village life.'