Irene. By the Princess Olga Cantacuzene-Altieri ; the translation by
F. Simpson. (F. Warne and Co.)—This story reminds us of " Ouida " in her sober moods. The Marquis Miraldi, a roué who has little character or fortune left to him, marries, much against his will, a Greek girl whom he has abducted. Her father has outwitted him. He leaves her for years at a rained castle, which is the only fragment left of his hereditary possessions. There, under the care of the old curd of the place, she grows into an accomplished woman. The reader will, of course, guess the result. The Marquis falls in love with his own wife, finds her, it seems, utterly indifferent to him, and torments himself with the fear that he has lost her love for ever. The old curd, his nephew the artist (who, it may be supposed, entertains a hopeless passion for the deserted wife), and the Marquis's worldly mother, are described with great skill. Irene, in short, is an interesting and quite wholesome story.
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