1 DECEMBER 1877, Page 23

Proud Maisie. By Bertha Thomas. (Sampson Low and Co.)—A. young

lady who, in pursuit of an escaped bullfinch, clambers over the, leads of half a street of London houses, and finds herself confronting another young lady, who is a vision of beauty of the Burne-Jonee school, and with whom the bereaved mistress of the bullfinch imme- diately swears eternal friendship, certainly does not appeal to the public through the channel of common-sense, in the first instant:so. N'or does "Proud Maisie" improve on acquaintance. She is an affected young person, who relates a conventional story in a style whieh ife something like Miss Broughton's, and she does not interest us in the least.