In Spite of Herself. By Leslie Keith. 3 vols. (Bentley
and Son.)—The story here is very slight. As for the heroine, she accepts a lover for no particular reason, except that it has been by her advice that he eold his patrimony, and finally marries him because she has got used to be engaged. Hence the title, In Spite of Herself. But there is some excellent work in the book. Decima is a delightful study ; and her father, with his tribe of not very sympathetic daughters, is an excellently drawn figure. He reminds us not a little of Miss Austen's " Mr. Bennet." Indeed, the resemblance there suggested reaches further ; Elizabeth, the beauty, and the somewhat hoydenish Janet, are girls such as Miss Austen might have drawn, with a change, of course, of manners. The story of Susan and her husband—all selfishness one, all devotion the other—is in a different tone ; but it might be separated from the rest of the tale. This is a novel that we can heartily recommend.
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