A Black Squire. By Mrs. Alfred Hunt. (Chapman and Hall.)
—A" Black Squire," according to our author, means a landowner in orders (otherwise called a " Squarson ). We had thought that it meant a landowner whose money came from coal-mines. But Mr. Geoffrey Yorke's profession is of the very slightest con- sequence. What happens to him might have happened just as easily to a layman. It is nothing else than the falling in love with a very pretty girl who is innately unfeeling and vulgar. These defects are brought out into clear relief when she attains, in a degree, her object of getting into "good society." Mr. Yorke, who becomes enormously rich by the rise of some mining shares, discovers his mistake, and. will doubtless marry the seraphic-looking Lady Veronica (who, angel as she is, must have a carriage, coachman, maid, house in town, and moor in Scotland), and meanwhile gives his sister enough to make her a suitable bride for the impecunious Lord Arthur. There is a certain in- consequence in the story, but it is quite readable, and Gulielma, the beauty who is so unbeautiful in mind, is well drawn.
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