17 MARCH 1894, Page 24

A Mere Cypher. By Mary Angela Dickens. (Macmillan and Co.)—This

is a powerful tale of a kind which we cannot admire.

And yet it might have been one which could have been praised

without reserve. The despair of Norman Strange, when he finds himself mastered, it would seem, by a habit which he cannot

break, is a fine picture ; and there is much to be praised in the way in which his deliverance is wrought. The feeble creature, of whose powers no one thinks well, least of all, herself, has yet the power to do it. Her faith in him arouses hope, and hope is, as ever, a saving influence. But the end adds what we cannot but think a needless horror to the tale. There are, it is quite possible,

tastes which such things may please; but we are sorry to have