The Glittering Road. By W. A. Mackenzie. (Ward, Lock, and
Co. 6s.)—Somewhere in a Beaconsfield or pseudo-Beaconsfield novel the hero, entering by a dingy door in Holywell Street, is ushered into the gorgeous palace of a Hebrew millionaire. Holy- well Street is gone; but Hector Grant has a similar experience in Bloomsbury, where he suddenly finds himself "in a great room hung with curtains of silver tissue and lit by a huge chandelier of a hundred lights." Ahundred lights and Queen Maddalena! What could a gallant young Scot want more ? Then we are fairly launched on a sea of romance. Next we meet the "Orange King," who is bought over for her Majesty by a monopoly of Palmetto oranges. Next we reach Palmetto,—but we must not pursue the story of Mr. Mackenzie's romance any further. It is a good specimen of a familiar article. After all, it is better reading about these "glittering roads" than about the shabby streets with which some very clever people try to amuse us. Mr. Mackenzie has a good literary touch, and keeps us so well pleased that we do not care to be criticaL
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