4 NOVEMBER 1876, Page 23

Nora's Love - Test. By Mary Cecil Hay. 3 vols. (Hurst and

Blackett.)—There are some good situations in this tale. Such is the scene where Nora sits between her unconscious lover and the assassin who is aiming at him from outside the room, and so saves his life ; and such, again, is the very unexpected incident by which the missing fortune is discovered. Then, again, the dialogue is easy, and the story generally runs on in a readable way. Still the impression left by the whole is not very favourable. We care little for any character but the heroine; the hero, in particular, is rather disagreeable than otherwise ; while Mrs. Foster's family are so odious, that it is a pain to read about them ; and the mysterious doctor is even more detestable. It is a very severe trial of a novelist's power to keep the reader's attention with the very slight provision of entertainment that is here provided, and Miss Hay can hardly be pronounced to have succeeded.