A Dangerous Guest. By the author of "Gilbert Rugge." (Chapman
and Hall.)—A mild sketch of French country and English town life, drawn very much in favour of the former. There is little incident, and, in fact, we were at first at a loss to discover any signs of faculty in the writer; but we must except the sketch of Mrs. Boss, the kindhearted landlady, who is so irritated at her new lodgers' non-arrival when every- thing was ready to give them a warm and hearty welcome, that when they do come she site in the corner of her kitchen engrossed with her hymn-book, "hadn't an idea where the keys are to be found, and was as ignorant of the number of spoonsful required to make good coffee, as though she had never heard of that beverage before," while all the time "she could have cried with vexation at her own foolish conduct." We all know Mrs. Boss. Mrs. Bloxham, also, who, "if it were the custom to interlard conversation with scraps of Japanese," would have had a native to teach it to her girls, is described with a cleverness which suggests the writer might do better things than she has here accomplished.
Previous page
