Was She Justified ? By C. J. Wills. (Spencer Blackett.)—Mr.
Wills dedicates his story to Henrik Ibsen, "the great Scandi- navian moralist," on whose "preserves "—a curious expression, by-the-way, when the province of a moralist is meant—ho apologises for trespassing. The tale is not in the Ibsen manner, as we are accustomed to see it in the dramas which are the last
realistic craze. The main subject of it is really what in Greek drama would be called a hereditary curse. The doom of the L'Estranges seems to have been that they should either think their wives unfaithful to them, or find them to have really been so. It must be admitted, however, that the evil inheritance admits of variation. One representative of the family is shot by a poacher, another finds a soldier's death in the Crimea. Mr. Wills has ability which raises him above the common crowd of horror-mongers. He has done better things than this. We hope that he will do them again. Surely there must be a reaction some day against this fashion for stories of bloodshed and lust.
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