A Moment of Madness. By Florence Marryat. 3 vole. (F.
V, White and Co.)—This is a collection of short tales and miscellaneous papers, that have done service before, we presume, as padding for magazines. The motive of the first story is the passion of a married man for a woman not his wife. The second repeats the incident, with an addition which we cannot but think makes it remarkably offensive. Captain Norton (the story is entitled " Captain Norton's Diary ") falls in love with a young woman who comes to stay with him and his wife ; and the young woman falls in love with him. There is not the least excuse, in domestic unhappiness or in any other conceivable reason. It is an act of sheer fickleness and wantonness. The story ends thus, with words supposed to be written ten years afterwards : " There was a time when I used to think and say [to his wife, we sup- pose] that all my happiness lay buried in the grave of Lionno; but I have lived to learn and believe that at the Last Day it shall rise again, with her to bloom, ten thousand times renewed, in heaven !" Was there ever anything more nauseous ? There are two or three ghost stories, fairly good of their kind ; and some miscellaneous stories, of which it is sufficient to say that they are of a medium quality. Of course, in " Mother " the law is wrong. If Charles Vere's father died intestate, the real property, including the house, came to him, and the wicked wife who suddenly reappears had no right over it beyond that of "dower," and certainly could not turn him any one out of it. There is an interesting account of the life and death of the Duke of Brabant, King Leopold II. of Belgium's only son, and one or two other readable papers. "In propriae personae," wo may remark, by the way, is not the usual form.
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