Facing the Footlights. By Florence Marryat (Mrs. Francis Lean). 3
vols. (F. V. White and Co.)—There is some better work in these three volumes than we have lately seen from " Florence Marryat's pen. All that concerns the heroine's training for and appearance on the stage is well told; the girl, too, bears herself with spirit and good-sense, and awakens the interest of those who follow her fortunes. The theatrical follies of fashionable amateurs and the silly curiosity of audiences who come to see not a skilful actress, but a celebrated beauty, are justly denounced. The surprise of the book, the mystery that surrounds the end of Mrs. Gerome, is ingeniously contrived, though it does not lead to anything, as far as we can see. We half expected that it would have resulted in the discomfiture of the worthless husband and his favourite. How would things stand with a man who married again on the strength of his wife having given herself out as having died P All this writer's practice in writing has not given her a perfect command over English. Envoys, not facts, are said to be "accredited," and an " infinitesimal " ran is not a thing that theatrical managers desire.
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