Madame de Presnel. By E. Frances Poynter. (Hurst and Blaokett.)
—Madame de Presnel gives a conveniently distinctive name to this novel, but she is not the heroine. Rather, we may say, she is the 'chorus, distributing praise and blame, administering counsel which is not always taken, and even, as was sometimes the manner of the chorus, giving active help. The real heroine is Ottilie Capel, daughter of a well-born Englishman and a German girl of the peasant rank, who, left a wealthy woman and independent, scandalises her noble relatives, and Rome itself to a certain degree, by the democratic -character of her receptions. She feels herself to be of the people, and she will not disclaim her kindred. It must be confessed, how- .ever, that little comes of her aspirations. She is taken in by a man who, if not actually a swindler, is not far removed from it. The fascination of his eloquence, felt also by more dispassionate observers, and a certain grandeur of liberal and philanthropic views which he assumes, imposes upon her. But she has a good genies at hand in the person of Richard Waring, at first a disinterested friend—for has he not offered his heart to another woman ?—but gradually assuming a different relation. A pretty love-story, which is at the same time something more than a love-story, is made out of these materials. The oharaoter of Howell, the adventurer, is touched with both deli- cacy and force. This is, perhaps, the happiest effort in the book ; but something of the same excellence may be found elsewhere. Waring himself is possibly a little too perfect; but the minor char- acters are without exception excellently drawn. Madame de Presnel, kindly and wise, but with a certain tinge of worldliness ; Laura, her daughter, with not much sense and not much more heart, but still charming ; and "Tanta Lena," Ottilie's peasant aunt, pathetically regretting in a Roman palazzo her native hills, are all noticeable figures.
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