Past Forgiveness. By Lady Margaret Majendie. 2 vols. (Bentley and
Son.)—This is a well-written, we may say a powerful story, probably the best thing that the accomplished author has y done. The two volumes differ widely in character ; the first (the division is not, indeed, exact, but it will suffice), is comedy,— genteel comedy; the second is tragedy, approaching to melodrama. We must frankly own that the rage of M. Delmache seems to us a passion so extravagant as to pass the limits of art, if not of belief. It is idle to say that revenge is an extinct passion ; it is still capable of being a great, even an absorbing motive in minds that have narrow interests and are not ruled by a strong sense of duty ; but surely the days of elaborate plots of vengeance are gone by. To put the matter briefly, the tragedy of the life of Etienne de Rohan and his wife seems to us somewhat overstrained. Be that as it may, it is distinctly unpleasing. But of the first volume, with its story of the growth of the love which unites them, and its vigorous pictures of life in Paris centering in the charming figure of Virginie de Frontignac, we cannot speak too highly.
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