Was it a Marriage? By Karl Hiihno. 3 vols. (Tinsley
Brothers.) —The title seemed to promise an exciting story, possibly of the sensa- tional type, but still in all probability readable. The opening chapters, however, though not as tedious as some that we have seen, were not particularly readable, and at all events suggested to the mind the idea of "skipping." But it was necessary to go on, lest one should "skip" the chief incident. The first volume came to an end, and contained, it is true, a marriage about which there could be no question. Two middle- aged persons were united in the most popular fashion, the bridegroom being a respectable English clergyman. One of the heroines goes to Scotland, and we felt sure that, as people marry in a very unexpected way in Scotland, we were near the catastrophe. But the scene changes ; the otherheroine goes to Heidelberg, and keeps us there for about a hun- dred pages or so. Then we get back to Scotland, our expectations are fulfilled, and at last, on the five hundred and twenty-fourth page, the elder heroine, being then one of the characters of a charade, is married to another character, without her knowledge or his knowledge. "Was it a Marriage ?" Mr. Hahne seems to think it was. As the two young people finally agree to settle it accordingly, no harm is done, and no one is disposed to question the decision. We own to having doubts. If it is true, the matrimonial relations of actors and actresses in Scotland are obviously somewhat complicated. But apart from the question, what are we to say of the plot from a literary point of view ? Here there can be no doubt. Never surely was there a more ludicrous mis- take. The incident might form the ground-work of a semi-comic tale, to occupy five or six pages in a magazine, but to expand it into three volumes is the ne plus ultra of absurdity.
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