flat Little Girl : a Novel. By Curtis Yorke. (Bevington
and Co.) —This is a novel of considerable spirit and interest. As usual, the characters which are not meant to be the most heroic, interest us more than those which are, and we greatly prefer Teddy Car- stairs to Sir Guy Lorraine. He is more human altogether. And, again, the child Lottie, who is very pleasantly sketched, seems to us the best thing in the story. Bat the plot is very good till the mis- understandings begin, and then we begin to be impatient, for we know very well that sane human beings like Guy and Doris, who had been perfectly assured of each other's love in the first months of their marriage, would never have been so easily persuaded that this confidence had been misplaced, without coming to a clear explanation with each other on the subject. When misunderstandings such as these are made to farnish out the plot , of a novel, we always feel angry with the imbecility which the author imputes to characters intended not merely to be sensible, but some- thing more than sensible, verging on the heroic. In fact, we count the vexatious pages which are to intervene before the misunder- standings are cleared up. Curtis Yorke indulges too mach in idealised characters, but she can write with power. The scene in which Sir Guy reproaches Lady Fitzroy with her treachery is a very good one. The tone of the story is throughout everything that we could wish.
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