FICTION.
MISS FINGAL.• IT is now many years since Mrs. Clifford moved and thrilled us with Mrs. Keith's Crime, but her new novel shows that she still wields the same spell. Miss Fingal is not so narrante as the story with which Mrs. Clifford commenced author, though it has many touching moments. But the old vivacity remains, while the art is more finished, the range of portraiture much wider. In one respect a point of contact between the two books may be noted. In both a sorely tried mother is desperately anxious about the future of her children. We need not recall the tragic way in which Mrs. Keith solves the problem ; here there is no hint of any such disaster, and Linda Alliston dies with at least a good hope—afterwards abundantly realized—that her children will pass into the keeping of their guardian angel.
The plot is in its main outlines a singularly happy develop- ment of a dream which comes to many people—what would they do if their income were suddenly increased twentyfold ? Miss Fingal was an orphan of twenty-eight who had lived for several years by herself in a small flat in Battersea. Then by the death of a prosperous but repellent uncle she suddenly found herself possessed of £3,000 a year, a house in Bedford Square, and a charming cottage in the country. She had lived her life apart in a meditative seclusion; she was shy, gentle. unworldly, and the responsibilities of her new position were at first over- whelming. But without knowing it she was cut out by nature for the rdfe of fairy godmother, and the opportunities for playing it soon began to present themselves. By a happy inversion of the traditional effects of unexpected wealth, her nature expanded in the new atmosphere. She was romantically benevolent, but her instincts were sound : even the worldly members of the new set into which she was projected by her altered mode of life soon began to realize that there was something in this insignificant little heiress. We watch her bravely over- coming her diffidence in her irresistible desire to befriend the heart-broken Linda Alliston,and rewarded by a confidencewhich brings her the greatest happiness of her life. Linda's reconciliation • star Fingal. By Idea W. K. Mani. louden: Maciwood. la. aria with her brilliant, unstable husband, whom she had divorced but never ceased to love, is prevented by her death. It remains for Aline Fingal to adopt her children, to secure them from their father, to fall under his spell, and to be released from it by his death in the war. It may be argued that this is rather an easy and ready-made way out of a difficult situation. It is certainly the weakest point in an admirably written and engrossing romance. The actress siren who lured Dick Alliston from his wife but could not hold him is a striking study of the scalp. huntress not incapable of generous actions. Bertha Glisten, shrewd, calm, and cheerful, and her kindly but undistinguished brother Jimmy are excellent company ; the minor poet culti- vating emotions he does not genuinely feel is fair game ; but Lout Edward Stockton, the religious peer who " goes to night clubs and pretends to be shocked in order to be certain that he is highly virtuous," borders on the incredible.
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