The Fortune of Christina MaeNab. By S. MacNaughtan. (Methuen and
Co. 6s.)—This is a quite admirable story, or perhaps, as one knows pretty well what is going to happen, we should say, study. Christina comes unexpectedly into a large fortune, and is introduced into society for a consideration by a lady of title. Possibly such a woman as Lady Anne would not have consented, for all her poverty, to such an arrangement. If so, we must excuse the incident as a dramatic necessity,—it was wanted to create the situation which is turned to such good account. It might easily have been handled in a coarse and commonplace way. Christina might have been a female Winkle perpetually blundering in matters which she professed to under- stand. Mr. MacNaughtan makes no such mistake. He relieves his fun with a delicate touch of pathos. Such is the illness of the little Jean, and the friendship between Dickie and Mr • Churchill. On the whole, perhaps Dickie is the best thing in the book. It shows, we think, the masculine hand. No woman could have painted him, nor, for the matter of that, the patient Colin.
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