A Long Madness. By Elizabeth J. Lysaght. 3 vols. (Charing
Cross Publishing Company.)—Honor Deverill, the heroine of this story, is a woman who has aims beyond the common conceptions of duty. She has the command of wealth, and she finds employment for it and for her energy of body and spirit, in the foundation and management of a hospital in a Northern manufacturing town. Meanwhile, her personal life is troubled by a grave question. Shall she marry her cousin ? Her friends wish it, he loves her sincerely, she has a certain affection for him. But he does not satisfy her, for she knows that h, has no sympathy with what she feels to be the best part of her own life. In course of time, her hospital work brings her into oontact -with Hewitt Fleetwood, a high-class artisan, and a model of manly strength and beauty. And it is he who stirs the depths of a heart which had been but lightly touched by the devotion of her well-born lover. Such is the outline of Mies Lysaght's tale. Tho story, how. ever, is less satisfactory than the drawing of the characters. These are sketched with considerable power. The heroine herself, Mr. Glorion, the zealous, somewhat narrow-minded clergyman, Lady Fergus, worldly
but kind, are all personages with a real individuality of their own. The Hercules-Antinous stonemason is more of a fancy-portrait, and fails to touch our sympathies. On the whole, A Long Madness, though made more of than the supply of material warrants, is worthy of praise.
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