Her Dearest Foe. By Mrs. Alexander. 3 vols. (Bentley.)—We shall
not be doing any injury to the prospects of a novel which deserves a very considerable success, if we give so much of the plot as the author herself allows her readers to see from the beginning. Mrs. Travers, the widow of a rich merchant, finds herself suddenly ousted from the wealth which she had imagined to be hers, by the discovery of a will later than that under which she had inherited. This will has been forged by her husband's manager, who is desperately in love with her, for the purpose of making her dependent upon him. A strange chance brings the man to whom the money has thus been diverted into contact with her. She has taken to keeping a shop, where she means to earn her living, and wait till circumstances give her what she believes to be her own; and to this place Sir Hugh Galbraith is brought, nearly dead from a fall in the hunting-field. The chance is a strange one, but it having been once admitted, the situation is striking, and is admirably described. Sir Hugh falls in love with the widow, not knowing who she is. She, of course, knows 14m. He has expressed himself about her most rudely, and he is in possession, she believes, of her rights. The contest between her resentment and her womanly feelings of com- passion, which gradually deepen into something like love, is given with much power. The minor characters, too, are excellent. Fanny, the widow's companion, and Tom, who is Fanny'sfieraeccare both lively and amusing. In fact, the whole story is as clever and readable a thing as we have lately seen. What a touch is this, when Mrs. Travers, who has kept her secret with admirable discretion, talking with Sir Hugh about herself, almost betrays herself by the irrepressible indignation which bursts forth when some one is said to have described her as having red hair !
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