4 JANUARY 1890, Page 32

Miss Meredith. By Amy Levy. (Hodder and Stoughton.)— This was

the work of a skilful pen, a conclusion at which the present writer arrived before he had noticed that it came from the hand that wrote "A Minor Poet " and "Reuben Sachs." Elsie Meredith goes as governess to teach English and music to the daughter of a noble Italian family. Nothing could be more vivid than the picture drawn of the Italian life in the Palazzo Brogi at Pisa. The stagnant waters are stirred by the advent of a certain Andrea, a younger son who has rebelled against the conventions of the society into which he was born, and found independence in America. How he further asserted his freedom, and how this assertion affected Elsie Meredith, was told excellently well by Miss Levy.—From the same publishers and in the same form, we get A Snow-Flower, by Hester Day. Grace Darrell and her sister have lost the patrimony which, it seemed, ought to have come to them. This loss is the " snow " out of which the flower of her

goodness and beauty shines with a new sweetness. Miss Day tells how all turned out for the best in a very pleasant way.