17 JULY 1886, Page 25

when travelling in Cornwall as an artist of a somewhat

dilettante kind, sees and ovea Honor Ross. She is at first all coldness and aversion ; but by degrees she thaws, and then, when he declares his

love, she reveals a secret which any woman of sense, not to say principle, would have taken care from the first should be no secret,—

that she is married. The catastrophe of this revelation comes pretty early in the story, being brought about by the familiar incident, described, however, with a force which makes it almost new, of a common danger from the tide and a common escape. We need not follow the tale further. It is told from the beginning to the end with mach strength and beauty of language ; but it is sorrowful, and it is a conviction of ours which we have expressed to weariness, that only genius can afford to write sorrowful novels. We hope that next time Miss Coxon will devote her real gifts to a subject on which it will be more of a pleasure to dwell.