A Rogue's Daughter. By Adeline Sergeant. (J. W. Arrowsmith, Bristol.)—This
story would seem to prove only too clearly that Miss Sergeant has yielded to the literary failing of the day, and is writing too much and too rapidly. The fundamental " idea " of the book at all events—a wealthy man proving to be a scoundrel, fleeing the country, and allowing his children to face a world that is in arms against them on account of his transgressions—is painfully hackneyed. The misfortunes and struggles of Delia and Dick Vansittart are well told, and one is heartily glad when Delia in the end "makes it all right" with her stiffish though very worthy husband, Cyprian Harcourt, and when Dick gets rid of his very unsuitable wife. But conventionality marks and mars the whole story ; and even the melodramatic death of the " rogue," and the intervention of the ultra-good Theresa Saintabury fail to infuse life into it.
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