McLellan of McLellan. By Helen R Redden, (Bliss, Sands, and
Foster.)—Here we have a stout, substantial, essentially common- place story, with a good old-fashioned, mildly melodramatic plot. A mysterious peasant, or half-peasant, a wicked Peer and proprie- tor, and an estate which is not at all well managed—out of such materials how many Scotch stories have been made ? Malcolm, the heir, temporarily cheated out of his inheritance, and Lord Lissing, the villain, who hates and, of course, tries to murder him, are there- fore old friends. But they are well drawn; and then in Gretchen, the girl artist, who is loved by Malcolm, we have an element of noielty. Colin Buchanan, too, the sickly enthusiast, provides the necessary element of pathos. While, on the whole, this book deserves a word of commendation because it contains a good deal of conscientious work, it does not appear nearly so Scotch as it should be, and the illustrations are rather poor.
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