A Bitter Debt. By Annie S. Swan. (Hutchinson and Co.)—
This, like not a few other of the volumes which come under the guise and in the company of "gift-books," is, to all intents and purposes, a novel. The heroine is a factory-girl, who has the advantage or disadvantage, as the case may be, of reckoning both the master and the overseer of the factory where she works among her lovers. The story of how she deals with the two is sufficiently interesting ; and there are other characters and inci- dents in the tale which contribute to its attractions. But we must own to not being able to reconcile ourselves to the way in which Miss Swan develops her plot. It has often been said that Pickwick begins by being a vulgar old fool, and ends by becoming a benevolent and sensible gentleman. But the change in the character of Pickwick is as nothing compared to that which the
novelist works in that of Justice Allkins. He is little less than odious when we first make his acquaintance, and he has reached an age when improvement is not very easy, for he is nearer sixty than fifty. But he is an estimable and agreeable person when we part with him, devoted to his wife, whose consent to the mar- riage he has won by an abominable falsehood, and, more marvel- lous still, greatly loved by her. How the refined " Pris" came to love such a man, certainly passes the wit of man to imagine. We quite agree with the principle of a tale-writer making everybody as happy as he can ; but Mr. Allkins is treated far too well for his deserts.
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