Six pencil sketches by E. J. Sullivan for illustrations in the Pall Mall Budget, including ones to the H. G. Wells stories 'The Stolen Bacillus' and 'The Thumbnail'. With autograph notes by Sullivan for an apparently unpublished short story.

The six illustrations and seven pages of text totalling 13pp., 4to (22.5 x 18cm), on seven leaves of laid paper removed from an album. On aged brittle paper, with chipping and slight loss to the edges. The illustrations are simple sketches, indicating the layout of the page, with titles and occasional words of text by Sullivan. Five of the six designs are for the Pall Mall Budget: 'The Thumbmark by H. G. Wells' (28 June 1894), thumbmarks around title and a newspaper seller with headline reading 'Anarchist Outrage'; 'The Stolen Bacillus by H. G. Wells' (21 June 1894), lady pursues thief running towards coach, above sketch of gentleman in top hat and cloak, sweeping his left hand; 'The Quest of the White Cat' (11 June 1894) by 'Miss , page filled with designs, showing three images of a fashionable lady in a cape; 'Love & Chronology' (1 May 1894), apparently including Pan with his pipes; 'To the Modern Heroine' (16 May 1894), a fashionable young lady leans over above the head of the title, reading a book. The sixth illustration, titled '' and with the phrase 'I half-forgot how much you bore me', is untraced. It carries the most finished image, showing a fashionable lady staring at a mirror on an elegant table in a wood-panelled room. The pages of text are heavily-corrected, in Sullivan's tiny and elegant hand. They include a page headed 'The Author's Apology, by way of preface.' Following the preface is the beginning of the first chapter: 'At last Lord Asterisk awoke. He was a man who seldom spoke of himself so he must be described.' Other character include 'Rose LeClerc' and 'Dr. May Bevan, the clinical lecturer', and the other pages include text from chapters II and IV. The text is intriguing, showing the influence of French symbolism and written in a style that would have been at home in 'The Yellow Book', which was beginning publication around the same time as Sullivan's designs appeared. The beginning of Chapter II gives a good indication of the style: 'He rang the bell, & the servant came in. | Have my robes come? said he. | Yes sir. | I will try them on - said Lord Asterisk. | They were brought - in the meantime his lordship had taken his tub; he dressed himself entirely in his robes of state. - with silk ermine coronet and all, & went down stairs to dinner. | We live half our live by not following out our impulses. | I am going out said his lordship. | What clothes shall I put you out your lordship? | How so? Am I not fittingly dressed as becomes a lord? | Certainly sir - | I am going out said his lordship - & I would have you fetch me a donkey in ten minutes, while I smoke my cigarette | Rudge was hard put to it - but he rang up 25 messengers, & in ten minutes two donkeys had arrived simultaneously. | Since there are two, we will make four. [...]'