Once and for Ever. By the Author of "No Appeal."
3 vols. (Tinsley Brothers.)—This is a well-told story, which, without aiming very high, shows no little power of observation and of describing char- acter. " Passages in the Life of the Curate of Danbury " is the second title, and the Curate is certainly an interesting and life-like personage. He begins by writing his own autobiography, but the author, probably finding this form of narrative inconvenient, visits her hero with sudden death, and proceeds to tell the rest of his story in the third person. The Curate, otherwise fortunate enough, is mallteureux en amour. In early youth he meets with an adventure, such as suggested one of the prettiest tales in Rogers' "Italy," a fair somnambulist walking into his room at an inn. The tale in " Italy "ends happily, but the sleep-walking Edith, especially with the dismal secret which she confides to him, is a great trouble to our hero. He is not more fortunate with the young lady whom he marries ; she, too, has a secret of another kind; which drives her away from her husband's home, and he only recovers her to lose her for ever. As if these matrimonial disasters were enough, our author, who surely must intend to advocate clerical celibacy, marries 'him for a second time to a Scotchwomaar with red hair, and six feet high. Heaven forbid that we should think that a lady of Northern origin, with these personal characteristics, of whom there are probably several among the readers of the Spectator, might not be the most admirable of wives ; but as a matter of fact, Mr. Norton's second wife is particularly jealous and insanely unreasonable, and leads him a fearful life. We must notice, as showing no little cleverness, an article supposed to be contributed to a Review by our hero, entitled "Oar Cousins in the Zoo," and bantering with some fun the theory of evolution. Our author is generally so careful in details that we must protest against the accuracy of her description, when she speaks of "the Minster and the old grand rocky heights of Lincoln, with its endless array of painted windows." Why a Minster? Lincoln is a Cathedral. It is on a height, indeed, but the height is not rocky. And as for the " endless array of painted windows," it may have been, but alas I it is not. The grand old building is sadly cold and bare, and wanting in colour.
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