The Embarrassing Orphan. By W. E. Norris. (Methuen a . na Co.
6s.)—Mr. Norris, on whom we may always rely for something pleasant, gives us what is not common in the fiction of to-day,,, a suspense. For a time we really do not know whom the "crPhan is going to make happy with her hand and fortune. A father, whose life has not taught him to trust his fellow-creatures, con- trives that no one should know whether she is a pauper or a good match,—no one, that is, besides a guardian bound te secrecy. A very pretty entanglement follows. An honest lover, who is unwilling to condemn the girl whom he loves to poverty fusee widow, to whom the honest lover is an object of considerabh.o interest; an accomplished Frenchman, who wants to regild halst somewhat shabby coronet ; and the well-meaning, semen a _ blundering guardian—it is he .who tells the story and acts, h thinks, as a beneficent Providence—these make up, with the heroine, a very nice little drama. Mr. Norris does not rely for his effects upon exciting incidents. Nevertheless the scene in the Ile Perdue, with the polished Marquis turned for a while into a brigand, may be taken to show that he can be romantic if he pleases. The Embarrassing Orphan leaves Mr. Norris's reputa- tion where it found it, as one of the safest and most agreeable of our novelists.
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