4 MARCH 1893, Page 26

For Better, for Worse. By Gordon Roy. (Alexander Gardner.) —The

writer of this tale might have made his point more effec- tively within a smaller compass. There was something heroic in Sutherland's steadfastness to an affection that was a mistake from the beginning; but it was a heroism which does not attract the reader,—which is even morally doubtful. It may well be questioned whether his usefulness as a minister would not have been hindered rather than advanced by his unselfish marriage. There are excel- lent things in. the book, as, for instance, the contrast between the young minister's freedom of thought and the stereotyped ways with which he is brought into contact ; but these come in by way of episode rather than as belonging to the essence of the story.