The Blind Side of the Heart. By F. E. Crichton.
(Mauxu3e1 and Co. 6s.)—Among the characters familiar to reviewers of fiction, there is one whom we find exceptionally madden- lug—the mystical Irish girl, with deep blue eyes and a most unintelligent faith in folk-lore, who never behaves like any one else, and yet entrances the hero by her unhealthy egoism; she usually site on hillsides in the dew, and is never met without an armful of flowers. Unfortunately Mrs. Crichton has chosen to give us, in one Eithne, an almost perfect specimen of the type ; that she should have been admired by such a cheerful, normal young man as Dick Sandford seems incredible. But the story goes that she stole Dick's love from his delightful English girl, and only ga.,e it back to her tarnished with many heart-searchings ani the shadow of a tragedy ; so that we travel through a dim atmosphere of introspection, to emerge into the plain, unshaded light of an average English love scene. Although the Irish of Mrs. Crichton's novel never attains to the won- derful freshness and stern reserve which inspire the finest work of the modern Irish school, she writes charmingly ; she is especially careful with the characterization of her minor parts, of the inhabitants of the little village, the priest, old Michael, and Mrs. Brady herself, whose dialogues with Mr. Brady are the best thing in the book.
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