9 JANUARY 1897, Page 25

A Neglected Privilege. By Maggie Swan. (Ward, Lock, and Co.)—Elsie

Blair, who marries without the faintest notion of accepting any of the responsibilities of marriage, is to us a somewhat absurd person. She does not interest us in the least,

and we cannot say much more for her sister, who is a very dif- ferent type of woman. Dr. Gordon, from his behaviour and con- versation, we are led to believe, above the average, but we are afterwards told that he was stamped with "that mediocrity of mind," which seems slightly inconsistent. Not that a far better man than he would not have succumbed to the blow dealt him by his wife's refusal to come back to him. Miss Meldrnm, with her outspoken thoughts, her determination to meddle in the love- story, and her pronounced dialect, is the only lifelike character of the book, and is distinctly amusing, if inclined to be a bore. Maggie Swan has written a better story than this, which is strangely lacking in interest.