Trevor Court. By Mrs. H. H. B. Paull. 3 vols.
(Hurst and iBlackett.)—No one will be the worse for reading this story. It is possible—so various are the means by which the human mind is affected—some one might be the better. It seemed to us exceedingly dull, maundering on—we hope that "maundering" is not an uncivil word—in a very purposeless and tedious way. ' We shall give our readers a specimen. The author is describing a death-bed, or what might be a death-bed, and may be expected to be doing her best. This -is the style :— " 'They are come,' she said ; and as she spoke' those around the bed 'could recognise the remains of that beauty which had caused her husband, when he married her, to be oblivious of the absence of mental ‘qualifications. The coarse, bloated complexion had become delicate, a.nd the regular features, pinched by illness, the eyes brightened by fever, and the now softened and humble manner, produced a change which astonished the watchers. Steps were heard in the passage and Edith trembled lest Caroline's impulsiveness might be injurious, to herself and the almost dying woman. Not so, however. The fair girl in th& hat and white feather, and the muslin and silk, looked calm and loving as she entered," dm.
Let the reader note the propriety of the millinery details in 'the third sentence. Well, there are just nine hundred and four pages, very like the sample, in Trevor Court ; so the reader may 'know what he will get, if he sends for it. We may suggest to Mrs. Paull that "the window at which Milton sat " is not known at Oxford, -that such a very clever young first-class man as Edward Dormer would not be likely to settle down at once into a country curacy, that if he did so, it would not be usual for him to be ordained on Easter Sunday, and—to pass to another subject—that "the pear and lilac trees" are seldom "one mass of bloom" when "crocuses, snow-drops, wallflowers, and other Spring flowers are in bud or blossom."
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