The Westlake,s. By Thomas Cobb. (Griffith, Farran, and Co.)— In
most of his novels, Mr. Thomas Cobb has aimed at the kind of interest inspired by curiosity concerning the evolution of a some- what elaborate plot. In his new one-volume tale there is nothing of this sort. It is a simple love-story, and the incidents which serve to sustain the narrative by preventing the course of love from running too smoothly are, for the most part, quiet and unexciting enough. We confess to being rather tired of that young lady whom we are always meeting in fiction,—the fantas- tically high-minded girl who refuses the man she loves because her father or some other relative has disgraced himself. In this case, there is perhaps more justification than usual, for when Walter Richmond proposes to Barbara, he is ignorant of the crime that has made Mr. Westlake an outlaw, and Bar- bara could hardly have accepted him without revealing the shameful secret ; but the idea is one that has been worked to death. There is another weak place in the construction of the story. When Mr. Prideux discovers his partner's defalca- tions, he allows him to escape to save the credit of the bank; but a few weeks afterwards, though the situation is unchanged, he offers a reward for his apprehension. This is clearly an oversight on Mr. Cobb's part, though it will perhaps be noticed only by a few readers of a book which is written in a pleasant and unpre- tentious style, and is by no means wanting in interest.
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