The See-Saw of Life. By William A. Morley. (Elliot Stock.)—
Everything in Mr. Morley's tale is ordered according to the strictest poetical justice. Mr. Albert Melville engages himself to Miss Violet Oaklands. He goes to Australia to look after an inheritance which has been left him, and falls a prey to an adventuress who has the additional disadvantage of having insanity in her family. He is murdered by his brother-in-law, and the murderer is promptly killed by the victim's dog. The adventurer's wife becomes "a raving maniac, and follows her husband to the grave within a month." That is fairly complete. Miss Violet, after a period of eclipse and poverty—" Misfortune no disgrace " is the admirable motto of the title-page—finds out that the securities left by a speculative father are worth .f.60,000. She prudently sells out and invests in the Three per Cents. An old lover appears upon the scene; the faithless one's parents present "a large dinner-service of latest design and workman- ship." Finally, we are allowed a glimpse into the future, and hear of a marriage between the son of the adventuress (a maniac, by the way) and Violet's eldest daughter. We do not like the literature of revolt, but this is just a little sickly.
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