31 MAY 1890, Page 25

Old Crusty's Niece. By T. Jackson Wray and J. Jackson

Wray. (Nisbet.)—This is a sufficiently interesting story of the "poetical

justice" kind. Perhaps the best part of it is the discovery by the elder Mansford that it is a mistake in a man to " play Providence." If he had come back to England in a straight- forward manner and declared who he was, he would have saved a world of trouble to innocent persons, and the commission of much wrong to bad ones,—a more important consideration, it may well be. But then, if people did not play such pranks, at least in fiction, the stock-in-trade of the novelist would be sadly diminished. The imposture practised on Nora is not unskilfully managed, and the girl's secret is a real surprise. On the whole, the plot is certainly well constructed.