The Honourable Miss. By L. T. Meade. 2 vols. (Methuen
and Co.)--Mre. Meade has a decided taste for plots which she is not able, wo suppose, to gratify as she would wish in the tales which she commonly writes. She has found an opportunity in The Honourable Miss. Early in the book a mysterious young woman who has a secret in her possession appears on the scene, and we
are thenceforward busy in guessing who she is and what hold she has got over other personages in the story. The most ingenious and experienced novel-reader will hardly be prepared for the truth
when it comes. And the ddnouement, considering how unexpected it is, is not too improbable. We do not, indeed, remember hearing of any one in real life acting as Mrs. Bertram acted ; but then, the exigencies of fiction are greater than those of actual existence. However this may be, The Honourable Miss—the title, by-the-way, is a still unexplained mystery—is a bright and lively story, with a fine heroine, whom it really does one good to read about. The vulgar people of the country town where the little drama is Played are sometimes a little tiresome. Perhaps it might bo said that the comedy sometimes verges upon farce. But the novel is worth reading. We feel obliged to ask whether the Bishop, who winds up the whole business in the orthodox way, did really begin the marriage service with "I, Loftus, take thee, Jose- phine." Surely ho did not cut off all the preliminaries !
Previous page
