ON CREDIT.*

THIS can scarcely be considered a story likely to captivate the novel-reading public, yet it affords a greater promise of really good work from the same pen than many a more fascinating volume. The defects seem lather those of undeveloped writing- power, than of that want of Vie essential qualifications which is evident in so many of the false and superficial novels of the present day. The story is too much a sketch in outline. It reads some- what like a narrative in which the narrator has ceased to feel interest. The details follow one another with a kind of positive and prosaic baldness which betokens an inelastic pen and an imagination not well warmed to the work. Add to this that there is only one interesting character in the book, and that about half are absolutely repulsive, not from exaggeration or from any sensational extravagance of incident, but from the selection of subject-matter, and it can hardly be expected that the reader should rise in an exhilarated frame of mind from its perusal. The author could not possibly, except by means of an intricate and sensational plot, form an uniformly pleasing story out of

the materials employed. At the same time, the reader whose pet aversions are the youths and maidens of senti-

* On endit. By Lady Wood. London: Chapman and Hall.

mental tales, to some extent human, but raddled over with e false paint of heroism inconsistent with their ages or circumstances. in order to make them interesting, will here enjoy security. Un- compromising truth to human nature is everywhere to the fore,. not, however, as in the green field, but as in the muddy road. The author engages to play their parts minds in which, as a general. rule, the higher traits are conspicuous by their absence, and throughout they remain faithful to their engagements. Indeed, if anything, a general deterioration of character may be observed/ under Lady Wood's treatment. Many writers have found a satis- faction in choosing hideous and revolting specimens of human_ nature out of which they ultimately elicit precious jewels of goodness and truth. Lady Wood chooses the same, but, under her hands, they gradually become more hideous and revolting still._ Yet no accusation of exaggeration can be brought, and such plea- sure and instruction as are necessary concomitants to mere truth. in the delineation of character may be fairly claimed.

The story which has, to commence with, the very considerable. merit of introducing us to but a few principal actors, runs as follows :—Mrs. Selwyn, a widow lady, is doing her best to make- both ends meet on a small income, with which and two daughters. she has been left after the death of her charming but extra- vagant husband. The experiences of this union, combined with the effects of early training; have led her to adopt somewhat rigid notions of propriety and of the sacrifice of inclination to duty.- So we are informed by the author ; but it is only fair to admit that without this assistance we should not have become possessed of the fact. Indeed from her different treatment of her two daughters, the eldest of whom is really loveable, but does not resemble the worthless father, and her uncontrolled partiality for. the youngest, who does, but nevertheless stands, by virtue of her utter heartlessness, facile princeps among the revolting personages,. the reader is in danger of completely misunderstanding her real character in this respect. That she should not have seen her youngest daughter's selfishness is indeed a plea timidly introduced by the author, but one which we must, with great respect, dismiss as, under the circumstances, wholly untenable.

Mrs. Selwyn, actuated by her rigid notions of propriety, has. wisely refused to sanction a marriage between her eldest daughter,. Mariana, and a fascinating cavalry officer from the sister isle, by name Captain O'Connor, who indulges in dissipation. when he can afford it. Though economical in all other ways of spending money, and sufficiently regular in non-payment of tradesmen, he is soon in such reduced circumstances that even his. limited tastes can no longer be cultivated without additional means, and Miss Selwyn's two thousand pounds captivate the truest affections of his nature. Deeply pained by Mariana's. finally yielding to her mother's wishes, but unconquered in reso- lution, he obtained his object in all essential particulars by marry- ing the youngest daughter, Bella, instead, whom he rune off with from a boarding-school; availing himself of some of the mysterious' methods of marrying without consent of guardians existing in brighter days, which, however inconvenient for certain social' interests, _still reflect inestimable blessings on novelists. Censur- able as Captain O'Connor's conduct was,—for, considering his fascinations, and that Bella's portion, being only in expectancy, did not represent a present value of over two or three hundred- pounds, he must have acted hastily from mere personal pique, and might surely have done much better,—Mrs. Selwyn does not at once despair of the prospects of the young couple. The favoured Bella seems to be loved, if anything, rather better- than before. Hine ills lacryms. Poor Mariana's position begins to be really a very hard one. She has a deep and true nature, and' a lady-like mind and heart, and the last she has bestowed unre- servedly upon this worthless O'Connor. She has ceased to respect him, but cannot overcome the fascination, and the thought that her selfish little sister enjoys the place which, but for her mother's happiness, she would have taken, is anguish to her. The selfish little sister seems to enjoy all this amazingly. She has not given him her heart, for her heart is but so much muscle ; but she is happy in the thought of leaving her mother, to whom she is every-- thing, and snubbing her sister, to whom she is nothing, and going with her husband to India, where she will be very much admired, for her beauty is perfect, and of dressing and flitting to her heart's content. Mariana cannot turn to her mother for sym- pathy, for her mother's mind is full of her darling's departure, and she stints herself and Mariana to prepare for it. Mrs. Bella, of course, makes a return of monosyllabic answers and the prettiest indifference for all the little aids which her mother can collect. At last they sail away, and though the fascinating husband and wife have vied with one another in showing the

great good fortune it was that neither of them retained the power to spoil the lot of any worthier person, poor Mariana is not to be comforted. Everything becomes fiat, stale, and unprofitable to her restless heart, and the future appears a dreary void. Time passes on, mother and daughter each longing for one who is far away, but neither sympathizing with the other's love. Bella occasionally writes frothy letters, telling how much she is admired and how finely they live ; which is remarkable, considering that they have hardly anything to live on and are both most extravagant.

Mrs. Selwyn continues to reduce more and more the household expenditure to supply their wants, until Mariana, who, the reader might at first fear, was determining to bear it like an angel, shows herself to be a much more interesting being, and when ominous preparations of baby-linen are being pinched for, abuses the rigidly- principled old lady somewhat roundly, and bitterly reminds her :-

" But for you I might have been his wife. I loved him ! I love him still! You did me deadly injury ; you refused to let me marry him ! I obeyed you, and now—now—you forgive and love her, and I, who did as you wished, am nothing to you. I wish I had married him ; I should have been happy then Every latent feeling of wowanhood was reused to jealousy when she thought of the small infant who would be on Bella's breast, robed in the dresses prepared by her mother, and purchased at the expense of that mother's self-sacrifice of comfort. She might have had the husband and the dear babe had she chosen to rebel as Bella had done. She might have had the delight of seeing new countries and of moving in fresh circles, instead of being compelled to the monotony of this dreary sombre life."

At last, after a few more years have passed, and Mariana has begun to pet dogs and pigeons, the jealous pain at her heart finds an unexpected remedy such as the mysterious chemistry of human life is capable of supplying. Captain O'Connor, having sucked his credit dry in India, manages to procure sick leave, and returns with his family to try what new harvest the magic name of officer and gentleman may enable him to reap from comparatively virgin soil. They have decided upon taking up their abode at Mrs. Selwyn's, the gallant captain being all but penniless, but considerately send before them a line of notice, feeling that the addition of some seven or eight to the small household, of com- paratively Bohemian manners, might demand some trifling pre- parations. In spite of Mariana's protest, Mrs. Selwyn resolves to have them, and before long the whole troop is at the door dusty and travel-stained. Alas for the sweet rose-coloured memories which still fed the romance of Miss Selwyn's heart! They are doomed to be rudely dispersed. A great authority on these matters has written :-

"No, that hallowed form is ne'er forgot which first love traced;

Still it lingering haunts the greenest spot on memory's waste."

It does not follow, however, that it cannot lose its moral identity. In this case the hallowed form had become heavy and graceless with lethargy and disease, and reeked with odours of alcohol and tobacco. However sweet a being the Captain O'Connor of the past might have been, he existed no longer; and from the first moment all Mariana's romance and heartache flew away together, and Bella was made heartily welcome to the hallowed form's existing representative. And now for several months the neat and quiet household is occupied as by a troop of savages. The children are imps as odious as any bachelor could wish to see. The Captain is a confirmed drunkard, and in his manners simply brutish. Mrs. O'Connor has not lost her beauty, which is her stock-in-trade ; but she has become so thoroughly and uniformly selfish that she earns the privilege of being able to forge her mother's name on a cheque for a hundred pounds without the reader thinking at all the worse of her. Poor Mrs. Selwyn works and schemes through it all with a most censurable self-sacrifice, neither does Mariana act the part of Mary to the maternal Martha, but lends every assistance in her power, so that before things are quite at their worst the hurricane has swept by, and the cloud suddenly reveals its silver lining. The Captain is disposed of by the simple expedient of a fall when drunk, aggravated by delirium tramens, leaving his widow and orphans as disconsolate as cheap

mourning can make them. But a mother's love is equal to the emergency, and Mrs. Bella, with great presence of mind, marries an estated young fool of a cornet whom she had provided for the occasion. The reader leaves the low society he has been keeping,

and Mrs. Selwyn begins to think of perusing her bills, which

impute to her a consumption of spirits, tobacco, and rouge remarkable for such a nice, old lady. Mariana resolves to defray them out of her private capital, and astonishes her trustee, Mr. Hereward, an exemplary student of the Share List, by insisting upon selling out, though consols are at 56. Mr. Here- ward had not supposed that filial disinterestedness could go as far

as this. His heart is touched, and he resolves to try if there might not be a little store of wifely affection also in so full a treasury, ready even for such a matter-of-fact little man as himself. Mariana, whose weary heart is full of love, to shed on any good and gentle soil, accepts him gratefully, and a happy married life succeeds, to throw old memories into dull shadow, not excluding our friend the hallowed form. Indeed, pace the bard, we strongly suspect the game of the hallowed form may be considered up. It may haunt the waste indefinitely now without hurting anybody. It may linger on the green spot to whatever metaphorically represents the point of incurring influenza, Mariana will not turn to look at it. In bidding farewell to Mrs. Hereward we regret we have not seen more of her and less of Bella, horrida ' Bells, and her equally horrid spouse. If Lady Wood only pleased to introduce cha- racters not absolutely hopeless, her sound common-sense, and clever delineation of character, checked by greater care, might bear valuable fruit. The story is full of promise, sensible and truthful. But we are sure the higher praise is also due that the author might do much better.