there are three or four people in its pages that
are really fine studies, drawn to the life, and from beginning to end full of vitality and individuality. Sir Gilbert Oreburn, the refined, sar- castic, easy-going but warm-hearted baronet, is a creation so distinct and attractive, that he may almost claim a place in the portrait-gallery of English gentlemen. He reminds us some- what of St. Clare, the type of Southern chivalry in " Uncle Tom's Cabin." Fay Arlington, the heroine, the daughter of a French mother, is an admirable portrait of French vivacity, Breton warm-heartedness, and feminine inconsequence_ She is inimitable, and by far the most striking personality in the story. Her extravagant gaiety and impetuosity, her almost doglike tenacity of purpose and faithfulness, have something perhaps of both English and Breton obstinacy about them. Her nonsense too, her peculiar English, and her cat- ' Villy, mon chat,' she calls it, after a friend—are delight- ful. General Arlington, Elinor, Maxwell, the Monypennies, and Dr. Hope, are actors in the drama scarcely inferior in work- manship to those we have mentioned. We forbear from discussion of the plot, further than to say that its mechanism, if not fault- less, is made to serve the author's purpose very well indeed. The fate of the mortgages is not an unlikely thing, everything being taken into consideration, and the behaviour of Sir Gilbert on that occasion certainly cannot be found fault with. The background of the story, with minor characters, is also good, and the whole story, though it extend; over four hundred pages, strikes us as being a careful work of art, every word of which is part of the whole, from the first page to the last. We recommend every one to read Fay Arlington.
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