14 DECEMBER 1889, Page 25

Where the Dew Falls in London. By Sarah Doudney. (J.

Nisbet and Co.)—This book might be briefly and not untruthfully described as the story of how a girl loses an unworthy lover and finds a worthy one. But this subject is handled with so much delicacy and feeling that it becomes very attractive indeed. The subsidiary characters are drawn with much skill : the wise and kindly old bookseller, his somewhat feeble wife, and the desponding lover who has to be made happy almost against his will. Curiously enough, the least satisfactory to our mind are Olive's two suitors. The worldly Michael is always described as if the writer was bent on pointing her moral, while his excellent rival is always a little shadowy. One of the most pleasing things in the book is the sympathetic account of a well-known London church and its minister.