Mea Culpa : a Woman's Last Word. ByHenry Harland. (Heine-
tnann.)—All the characters in Mea Culpa are distinctly good, except Prince Leonticheff. He is an almost impossible character, and of a kind a novelist should only put forward when absolutely certain a being able to control it. Prince Leonticheff wants a great deal of diluting, and to make the metaphor complete, we should add, to the extent of one in ten. The stately, egotistical, exiled Russian nobleman is well drawn, as well drawn as any similar character we can think of. Armidis is a very passable type of the eccentric musician, perhaps even more than passable. The framework of the story is interesting, and the narrative preserves a high level of vigour throughout. The catastrophe, though it is naturally worked up to, gives an unsatisfactory and disappointing finish to the story; it seems to us a little strained.
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