Mrs. Dorriman. By the Hon. Mrs. Henry Chetwynd. 3 vols.
(Chapman and Hall.)—There is the same delicacy of touch and the same insight into character that we have seen before in Mrs. Chet- wynd's work. Mrs. Dorriman is a true woman, by which we mean not an ideal woman, who, indeed, is seldom found, but typical both in her strength and in her weakness. The first impression that she gives is one of helplessness and irresolution ; when we know more about her, we see the solid strength of principle which only necessity can bring to the light. But Mrs. Dorriman, though she gives a name to the book, is hardly the heroine of the tale. This is Margaret Rivers, the elder of two sisters with whom Mrs. Dorriman is brought into *lose contact. It is her love-story which makes the principal thread in the plot. The favourite complication of a compulsory marriage is resorted to, for Margaret marries a lunatic who is supposed to be wealthy, in order to rescue a guardian from money difficulties which do not really exist, and to provide for her sister a home which, after all, she is not permitted to give her. All this is not particularly well managed. Still, the heroine interests us; and when the true lover (parted from her, by the way, in the first instance by one of those misunderstandings which are, happily, Lass common in real life than in fiction) is made happy at last, every reader will be glad. Grace, the other sister, so called on the Lucas a son principle, is skilfully pictured, and is allowed to improve as much and to be as happy as her nature allows. Mrs. Dorriman, too, marrying being the order of the day, repairs the ill.fortene of her first venture. Money affairs are set right, and a very pleasant novel has an appropriate ending.
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