Storm - Driven. By Mary Healy. 3 vols. (Sampson Low and Co.)
—Miss Healy's latest novel is a very good one of its kind. It presents a sketch of manners rather than a study of character, and its personages are therefore somewhat conventional. Mrs. Cox, leader of fashion at Lake- ville (which the reader will understand to be Chicago), is an exception. Here there are distinct touches of individuality, and one is able to see something of the real woman. One cannot say so much of the other dramatis personce,—of the two heroines of the story, or of Leigh Ward, dilettante and idler, and John Brace, hard-working artist, who are the most prominent of its male characters. Yet these figures, too, if familiar, are well drawn, and well represent real types. The story is capital, and in its latter part especially worked up to an interest that is really tragical. Mr. Temple, a bold speculator, is rained by a sudden change of the market, and commits suicide. His daughters are left destitute. One of them resolves to work for her living, and after failing as a teacher, succeeds in dress-making. The other, led away by a weak love of ease, accepts the position of companion to a heartless woman of fashion. It is in the coarse of her fortunes that the main interest of the story lies. It is admirably told throughout. One of the later scenes, when she wanders destitute through the streets of Paris, reminds us of that powerful description in Jane Eyre of the heroine after her flight from Mr. Rochester's house.
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