The Freaks of Lady Fortune. By May Crommelin. (Hurst and
Blackett.)—At the opening of this story, the heroine, a regally beau- tiful farm-girl, is found picking bluebells for market in company with her young brother. To them enters a runaway horse, dragging a stern and haughty old Peer, whom they have never seen before ; and as the girl has "small hands like steel vices," of course she readily brings the fiery steed to a standstill, and saves the Peer's life. On recovering his senses, he discovers that she and her brother are his grandchildren, and the latter is his natural successor in the title ; and after keeping this discovery to himself until midnight—(whether on that day or some days later is un- certain)—he suddenly sends a carriage to the hovel in which they are penniless and starving, to convey them to his own magnificent abode, where they are at once established in the lap of luxury as his heirs. All this takes place in the course of the first sixty pages, and the sequel matches the commencement. The whilom dairy-maid is one year the courted beauty of the season, and the next, forced to sing for her livelihood; one day the honoured guest of a Duke who seeks her hand, and another, exposed friendless to the machinations of a sort of Arthur Orion, who plays the part of wicked uncle, and threatens her liberty and life. Her startling vicissitudes of fortune call forth hearty commendation on the suitability of the book's title, at any rate ; though we fear that its contents cannot conscientiously be pronounced to be anything but trash.
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