Grace Balmaign's Sweetheart. By James Ranciman. (Chatto and Windus.)—The "
sweetheart " is a young fellow who loves very much above him ; for his father is a pensioner, and Grace's father is a long. descended squire. But Harry Leighton—that is the young fellow's name—means to rise. He is a great mathematician, and might com- mand high, if not the highest, honours at Cambridge. But books are not the ladder by which he can mount to the height which be desires, and he deliberately throws them away, and resolves to seek the fortune which is to raise him to the level of the lady whom he loves in other lines of life. Meanwhile, Grace Balmaign has a battle of her own to fight, not the less difficult on account of the tenderness and sympathy with which her father—who is, of course, firmly set against her love-affair with Harry—goes to work to win her to his will. Mr. Balmaign's character, ways of thought, and manner of conversation are described with much skill. Indeed, all the per- sonalities of the book are drawn with much force, the scholar, Leslie, being, perhaps, the one among them that is most happily conceived and executed. There is no little skill, too, in the plot. On the whole, Mr. Runciman's is a good novel, not the less to be praised on account of its convenient length, or, we should rather say, brevity.
Previous page
