Cathedral Bells. By Vin Vincent. 2 vols. (Griffiths, Farran, and
Co.)—The group composed of Ina Strong, the pretty, loveable daughter of the Canon of Carswell, and her three lovers, provides an interesting centre for a very simply and charmingly told story of life in a cathedral town. The suitors are young Lord Ross- mere, the only son of the Marquis of Stackallan, a manly and affectionate lad of a healthy English type ; Mr. Mackinnon, the cold-hearted, scheming, and unscrupulous banker ; and James Romer, the poor, awkward, but devoted curate of St. Mary's, who gives his life for his poor people at the fever-stricken colony of Piffin's Wharf. Romer it is who really deserves the prize for which the three men are contending, though the author is clearly right in allowing natural affinities their full play and in giving Ina to Rossmere. Perhaps Mackinnon is not quite so lifelike as the other members of the group, being rather too symmetrically and integrally bad ; but he is the only character in the book who makes as feel at all doubtful. True, all the characters except these four are only sketches ; but as such they are complete and satisfying. Lady Stackallan is a very beautiful and pathetic figure : the love-scenes are specially pretty, and Cathedral Bells as a whole is a really enjoyable novel.
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