CURRENT LITERATURE.
Absent, yet Present. By Gilberta M. F. Lyon. S vols. (Digby, Long, and Co.)—The substance of Miss Lyon's story does not disclose any meaning or relevance in its rather silly title, which, we are informed, is copyright, and has been used by permission. This, however, is a detail of little significance. More important to the reader of reviews is the fact that the book itself is one of those incoherent, amateurish affairs in which, from first to last, human nature and ordinary probability are consistently set at defiance. There is a good deal about a ridiculous secret which the hero promises to keep, and the keeping of which involves him in the unpleasantness of being separated from his fiancee and regarded as a scoundrel, the author of course failing to see that without any breach of faith sr sane human being would at any rate have attempted a partial explanation of the compromising facts. It is, however, a waste of space to point out any single absurdity in a novel which is so absurd all round, and in which shaky construction is not compensated for by good writing. Our old friends "different to," and " like " where grammar demands "as," are well in evidence.
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