CURRENT LITERATURE.
Mrs. Penicott's Lodger, and cther Stories. By Lady Sophia Palmer. (Macmillan and Co.)—Lady Sophia Palmer shows a great deal of power in these stories ; indeed, in at least three of them,—" Mrs. Penicott's Lodger," " Beppa," and "Miss Martha Caryl,"—a kind of power which rises a good deal above mere talent or skill, and shows a definite touch of genius. The first story was suggested by Mr. Burne-Jonee's memorable picture of a young drover driving a calf to market in the early morning, and finding by the way-side, in a faded and tawdry dress, the girl whom he had long ago loved, dying in the extremity of want. The picture was a fine one, and the little tale is as fine as the picture, and interprets it with great delicacy and beauty. The second tale, " Beppa," shows great knowledge of raetic Italian life, and is full of buoyancy as well as reality ; and " Miss Martha Caryl" is one of the most touching of the shorter tales of our time, and indicates very clearly, in the account of the last scenes of poor Miss Martha's life, that the authoress has an imaginative insight of no mean order into the reserve power of each a nature as Martha Caryl's. "Notre Dame de Bon Secoars," though not the equal of any of these, is a very humorous and touching little sketch ; and the Christmas story, which reads as if taken from life, is singularly interesting. "Nancy Dedman " is hardly up to the level of the other tales, though it is fresh, and shows again how the authoress loves to treat women of more than the feminine average of intensity and power. On the whole, this little volume suggests that its author might write something that would make its mark in English literature.
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