Bid Me Discourse, and other Tales. By Mary Cecil Hay.
3 vols. (Hurst and Blackett.)—Miss Hay's powers do not appear to much advantage in the short tales collected in these three volamee. We can see that she knows how to contrive a plot, for now-and then we come upon a dramatic situation, and there are occasionally forcible touches of character. But for the proper development of this, there is not sufficient space or opportunity. We may take as an instance the tale entitled " Kenneth." Something might be made of the leading idea. A young woman is forced by circumstances to hide her real character from the man who is ready to love her; an ac- cident reveals it, and all ends well. But in " Kenneth," the develop- ment of events is almost ludicrously harried. The two young people have been as distant, not to say as rade to each other as possible, and then we have the transformation scene of the avowal of mutual attachment. One is irresistibly reminded of the "wholesome aver- sion" which a famous character recommends as the beginning of love. It is perhaps the result of the constraint thus put upon the writer, that the sentiment of these tales is somewhat sickly and wanting in reality. Mies Hay ought to know that in England magistrates have not the power, even if we could suppose they had the will, to sentence a child to " solitary imprisonment for two years."
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