How It All Came Round. By L. T. Meade. (Hodder
and Stoughton.)—It is always a pleasure to read one of Miss Meade's tales, but we must repeat a wish that we have, we think, expressed before, that she would consult probabilities a little more. In the story before us, we have two brothers proving a will which leaves absolutely £1,200 a year to their half-sister, and then putting her off with the life-interest of 23,000. This they do, trusting that no one would examine the will. Taking for granted this impossibility, for it is really nothing less, we have a most interesting tale in How It All Came Round. The two Charlottes, "the rich Charlotte," daughter of one of the unjust brothers and niece to the other, and "the poor Charlotte," daughter of the dispossessed half-sister, are excellent characters. Our sympathies are very nicely divided between the two, while they go entirely with the "poor Charlotte's" unworldly husband, whose courage and unselfishness (which do not, however, keep him from some human feeling when he sees his children pining away before his eyes) give bim a real nobility. We put this volume very high among the books of the season.
Previous page
