Cousin Jem. By Is. Higgin. (Hurst and Blackett.)—If there were
nothing else of merit in this story, it would be entitled to rank well among its contemporaries on account of the admirable study of Beryl, one of the Becky Sharp genus, and its companion picture, James Beaumont. There is real subtlety in the drawing of these two. How acute, for instance, is this. The two have made acquaintance as strangers, and Beaumont, who has found that Beryl is a cousin, warns her that this is a dangerous thing for a girl to do. "As for your becoming so virtuous all of a sudden," she retorts on him, "I suppose it is just because you have found out that I am your cousin, and you men think it is of no consequence what you do to any one else, sister or cousin ; it is only your own precious relatives that have to be wrapped up in tissue-paper." And there is much else that is clever in the book.
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