Una ; or, the Early Marriage. By Harriette Bowra. {Hodder
and Stoughton.)—This is a didactic tale, which may, perhaps, be pronounced to he as successful and interesting as such tales commonly are. Una Randolph, daughter of a rich merchant, marries the Honourable Herbert Elmore. The marriage is not a very happy one, though its " earli- ness" can scarcely be hold to be to blame for this result. Una was a headstrong girl who would probably have made as bad a choice at -twenty-five as at eighteen. 'However that may be, the couple is un- happy. The husband neglects his wife, the wife is obstinate, and even indiscreet. A pious colonel appears upon the scene, permits himself to fall in love with the neglected wife, and then banishes himself with an heroic resignation. How it all ends, the reader, if he pleases, may dis- cover for himself. We cannot unreservedly recommend the hook. Would it not have been better to have left Una childless, than to per- petrate the harrowing child-slaughter which in cases like this a novelist always feels, it would seem, bound to commit ?
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