ton Price defrauds in some way that we do not
quite understand, possibly because we are not so well acquainted with business matters as "C. E. M.," the family of a country squire, Mr. Stanniforth. The poor squire dies ; but his sons Hugh and Alan, and his daughter Gertrude, overcome their ill-fortune, and this though Alan begins life by being "wooden spoon" at Cambridge. An indifferent mathematician, he turns out to be a great artist. Hugh is a model clergyman ; and Gertrude, who strikes us as being more real than anybody else in the book, after being a somewhat naughty girl, changes into an excellent young woman. Mr. Price's children do not turn out quite so well. His fortune, too, takes to itself wings, while a worldly old aunt leaves her wealth to the Stanniforths, who thus get back the old property. We cannot honestly praise much beyond the scenes in Gertrude's school-life.
Previous page
