Spoken in Anger. 3 vols. (Tinsley Brothers.)—A certain Lord Clowden
Strafford is introduced to us in chapter i., as engaged to Marion Doolington. Chapter ii. introduces us to a lady who, with her little
boy, makes her way to the neighbourhood of Dooliugton Hall, and whom we find to have been the wife of the aforesaid Lord Clowden. It gives us also a glimpse of some previous liaison on the part of this amiable nobleman. However, as the "weary, passionate spirit" of Isabelle Stanley passes away at the end of the chapter, we are relieved from the fear of immediate bigamy. In the course of two or three more chapters, a very simple young woman, Lucy Dashwood by name, falls wildly in love with him, and we have some edifying descriptions of their meetings. In the course of the first volume, he marries Marion, and finds time while the wedding is about to make an appointment with Lucy in the " Mile-End Road." This appointment she keeps, knowing that the marriage had taken place, and here we have her described as as lying " for a while weeping in his arms, feeling a blessed sense of rest, as though she could sob out her life there." It is a downright in- sult to woman's nature, when we are told that in so doing " she simply obeyed the impulses of her pure young heart." We shall not follow the story any further. It is enough to say that it would be mischievous, if it were not so silly. As is usual with these foolish books, it is sown broad-east with French phrases, not always very happily used as when, for instance, we read of "a saintly mignonne face."
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