Our Adversary. By M. E. Braddon. (Hutchinson and Co. Gs.)
--The reader will not be able to resist the idea that in beginning to write her novel Miss Braddon intended to give her readers a hint that his Satanic Majesty was embodied in the character of Eugene Swann. However, before the end of the book the author had changed her mind, and Mr. Swann had become a very com- monplace gentleman adventurer. The story of Julian Danyelrs life with his two wards in the Cornish country house is well and picturesquely told, and the experienced novel-reader will feel that both Julian and Marie have only done what is expected of them when they marry each other at the end of the book. Miss Braddon has never drawn a portrait which is quite the equal of the extraordinarily lifelike figure of Daniel Lester, the poetaster, in her novel, "The Rose of Life," but her puppets are always adequately contrived, and perform their evolutions in a thoroughly competent manner.
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