7 JULY 1888, Page 24

A Step Aside. By Charlotte Dunning. (Houghton, Mifflin, and Co.,

Boston and New York.)—This little story preaches in a way that is not less forcible because it is unobtrusive, the moral of the insidious influence of luxury and the craving for wealth. Hugh Langmuir loves Pauline, the daughter of a French teacher of painting and drawing in New York. He is a good, honest fellow ; but his ambition is to be rich ; and she is petted and spoilt by a rich woman. Miss Dunning describes with much skill how the bad influence in the two lives works together till the "step aside" is taken. Altogether this is an excellent little book.