Sweet Christabel. By A. M. Hopkinson. 3 vole. (J. and
R. Max- well.)—This is a story of "the course of true love not running smooth." The heroine is the daughter of a certain Mr. Vanstone, who has a very reasonable prejudice against Grenville Vanstone, his kins- man and heir, and a prejudice also, not so reasonable, against Gren- ville Vanstone's son. This makes him fetter the inheritance which he leaves to his daughter with the provision that she is not to marry the young man, who, by the way, has saved her life when she was sur- rounded by the tide. (How a sensible person like Christabel's governess should have gone to sleep in such a spot, is past compre- hension.) As this inheritance seems to include pretty much his whole property, it is not easy to see why he should have been so much annoyed about the succession. Why did he not buy his remainder from the needy Grenville Vanstone ? All this part of the story is but of indifferent merit ; but the behaviour of Piers, the worthless Grenville Vanstone's son, to his neglected step-brothers and sisters, is described with some force. A shorter story, of which this should have been the chief motive, might have been effective. As it is, Sweet Christabel does not escape commonplace.
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