A Stumbler in Wide Shoes. By E. Sutcliffe March. (Hutchinson
and Co.)—Rupert van Halm, "the tit-ambler," and Leon, the Spanish Jew, are both capital studies of a weak and a strong man respec- tively; and the two heroines, Myrtle van Hals and Daria Leon are admirably contrasted, both strong characters, the one gentle and the other tenacious and fiery with her mingled Spanish and Jewish blood. The vicissitudes of the artist's career, his fall and his struggle—successful at the last—keep the interest of the story without flagging to the end, and his wife's gentle but heroic courage furnishes a highly dramatic scene with the revengeful Leon. The scene is mostly laid in Amsterdam, and the author fills in his background sufficiently carefully to afford a good relief to his characters, without taking the attention from them. A Stumbler in Wide Shoes is a clever and vigorous study of human nature,—erring, indeed, but regarded charitably and hopefully.
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