Lillian's Child. By M. H. L. (Sampson Low and Co.)—The
spelling of "Lilian" with two "11's" is not the only unusual feature of this novel. It is all about very grand people, but that is not remarkable. Novelists of a certain class scatter peers and ladies of high degree about their pages as freely as Miss Flite in " Bleak House " " conferred estates." The really odd thing is that everybody is always flying off at a tangent, and hiding from everybody else ; nobody is ever guided by the faintest indication of ordinary common-sense, but all the affairs of all the people concerned (very vulgar people, though lavishly titled) are transacted in what Mr. Mantalini called "a demd uncomfortable and private-madhouse sort of manner." No one distantly resembling a lady or a gentleman appears in the story, and the elegant manners of "young Oxonians " are charmingly illustrated. Here is a sample. A young Oxonian honours his father's house with a visit. His father is Sir Charles Jocelyn, whose daughter Sybella has married a duke. A. ball is about to take place, at which a second daughter, Helen, is " to make her chibut." It may as well be mentioned that Helen is not Sir Charles's daughter, but the child of Lord Norrice, and that when she discovers the fact she immediately runs away from her betrothed lover, without the slightest reason ; while the author, who is more liberal than accurate about titles, turns her into Lady Helen Berkeley. But, to the ball! We are first told that the duchess daughter of Sir Charles "for once threw off the ducal state with which she was generally invested, and personally superintended the fitting-up of little recesses in the conservatories and in the hall," and we cannot but feel that such condescension hardly meets its reward in the demeanour of the duchess's brother:-
"' How many people are there expected this evening, Sybella?' yawned James, as he entered the room.—' A hundred and fifty, I expect:—
Does your Grace consider this still in the light of a dance ?' By Jove !' with a rapid glance round the room, can any one tell me where Cecil and Helen have disappeared ? I don't mind offering a bet that they were here a moment ago. Ithink I shall go and see what they are after.'—'Don't, James implored Lillian; ' they have only been en- gaged a few weeks, and it is but natural that they should have a great deal to say to each other. You are always worrying them. It is really not kind of you.'—' Well, to please you, most arbitrary of sisters, I will lie down for a short time ;' and suiting the action to the writhe flung himself full length upon a sofa.'—' What a i.,zy fellow you are!' said his father.—' Me lazy My dear Sir, I am Lao most active man in the world, when the humour takes me.'" And so the scene goes on, in a similarly elegant fashion. One does not know whether to wonder most that people can bo found to take plea- sure in writing this sort of thing, or that they can possibly believe any one exists who could find pleasure in reading it.
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