complicated, and yet scarcely rouses one enough to be at
the pains to.
unravel it. Yet it is constructed with some skill ; there is ability too both in the drawing of character, and in the description of scenery.
Still the interest flags; we are not touched by the pathos of the story, though pathos there is, nor dismayed by the tragedy, though this is given with force. The scene of the story is laid on the Cornish coast,
and the best part of it is, perhaps, the description of the shipwreck. Unfortunately out of this wreck is rescued a luckless wretch doomed to curse those with whom he has to do. His influence is in its way as baneful on the reader as it is on the character of the drama. The sim- pler pictures of life which hold out fair promises at the beginning, give way to a complex narrative which we read with less interest than the ability of the writer ought to be able to evoke.
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