30 JANUARY 1875, Page 23

In Honour Bound. By Charles Gibbon. 3 vols. (Bentley.)—Mr. Gibbon

treats the old subject of an unequal marriage with considerable freshness and force. There is something painful about the story ; we feel that Teenio's is a bard lot. She might have been so happy had it not been for the love which, loyal and true though it was, was yet so fatal to her. Yet we can hardly doubt that the novelist is right in so ordering it. Social distinctions are terribly strong barriers, and those who try to surmount them are apt to get fatally injured in the effort. The book is carefully written throughout, and the characters drawn with no common skill. The scheming old laird, Dalmahoy, and his stern sister, Mrs. Wishart, are especially noticeable among the subor- dinate personages, as is also the old sailor, Teenie's father.