text:  A few old maids in the county towns and a few gouty old gentlemen at the clubs; are the only persons of the present day who ever open a book!" And who can wonder? _Who_ has leisure to read? _Who_ cares to sit down and spell out accounts of travels which he can make at less cost than the cost of the narrative? _Who_ wants to peruse fictitious adventures when railroads and steamboats woo him to adventures of his own? Egypt was once a land of mystery; now every lad on leaving Eton yachts it to the pyramids