The Girl He Left Behind Him. By R. Mounteney Jepbson.
3 vols. (Bentley.)—There is good, or, anyhow, smart writing in this book. On the whole, it is not otherwise than readable. Perhaps the best, as it is certainly the most amusing, character in the book is that which is most obviously a caricature, Dorrien's eccentric old uncle. But the events which separate the hero and his wife are really too absurd. That an elaborate scheme for carrying off a lady should be planned and carried out in London is, perhaps, possible ; but that, when it is frustrated by the lady's throwing herself out of the cab, the wife should find her
husband possessed with an insane belief in her infidelity, is beyond all allowable limits. Nor does the marvellous resemblance which is in- vented to account for the delusion help to make it more credible. But it is wrong to be severe on the desperate expedients to which authors are driven by the exigencies of novel-writing. The incident of the officer who shoots himself because he cannot exchange is really silly.
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