Between Two Fires. By the Author of "Not Easily Jealous."
(Chapman and Hall.) — There are two things remarkable in this perfectly harmless and lady-like tale ; one is the sudden change—when three-quarters of the book is past—from absolute colourlessness to crowded sensationalism ; and the other is a beautiful heroine with whom no one falls in love, and who does not fall in love herself. As artists say of some water-colour sketches,, there is 'too much paper' about the first three-quarters of the story. No incident and little character ; and then we rush, without notice, upon a murder, a trial, a conviction, a railway smash, a confession, a pardon and two death-beds, in the descriptions of which probability is not too conspicuous. The orphan heroine's relatives on her father's aide, by whom she is brought up, are a morose trio, nursing, first, 'vindictiveness towards her mother's rela- tives and, afterwards, jealousy of her love for them. The only slight successes in the way of character - painting are in the sketches of the youngest of these three—an old-maid cousin—whose sullen tenderness is sometimes rather happily suggested ; and in that of a young man, cousin on her mother's side, whose passionate devotion to a certain young lady, called Clemaine Dainsthorpe, occa- sionally breaks the calm superciliousness which is habitual to him. These Dainsthorpes at once flood and freeze the reader, so that he is in a state as cold and imperturbable as themselves. We have Mrs. Ashbnrnham, ne'e Dainsthorpe, and her daughter Clemaine ; Lord and Lady Geraldine Dainsthorpe, and their son Stafford; and Mr. Edward Dainsthorpe and his wife Estella,—the parents of our heroine's deceased mother. As these personages are all very aristocratic, very tall, very pale, very statuesque, very classical, very dignified, very cold, very self-possessed, it is somewhat surprising that our impulsive little heroine Star (short for Estella) is not as much frozen by contact with them as we are ; it is quite otherwise, however ; she takes kindly to -them, notwithstanding her far warmer and more affectionate tempera- ment. Star is thoroughly natural and nice, but as her only characteristic is simple affectionateness, we have nothing else to say about her.
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