The Cross of . Honour. By Annie Thomas. (Maxwell and Co.)—In
point of style Miss Thomas has the advantage'over many of those who compete with her for the favour of the novel-reading public, and she has besides considerable power of conceiving character. The conse- quence is that her story flows pleasantly on, and she can keep us inter- ested in the details without introducing a crowd of unnecessary persons who do nothing but keep the author supplied with materials. Where this is the case plot is a matter of very secondary importance, but really the plot of the "Cross of Honour" is too bad. Frank Tierney engages him- self to a lady who, on the day fixed for the marriage, reveals to him that she had obtained a divorce from her former husband. Her character is irreproachable, but Frank's delicacy is so shocked at the notion of a Woman appearing in open court to tell her wrongs that he breaks off the match, but at the same time is induced by her to promise not to marry another till she releases him from his vow. We cannot say this is a likely incident, but when he falls deeply in love with his cousin, the heroine, we at least expect that a rational man would try to get a release from the vow. Not a bit of it. He tells his cousin he is a "married man," exchanges into a cavalry regiment, and goes to the Crimea. The heroine then scorns to live with his mother, and goes out as a companion to the very lady to whom Frank was engaged ; she, of course, marries an old flame of the heroine. Equally, of course, Frank is reported killed in the charge of the Light Brigade, which, if it had consisted of nothing but officers, never could have supplied the demands made on it by lady novelists. Then some relative leaves the heroine 8002 a year. She returns instanter to Frank's mother, where she finds Frank, who was only wounded, who promptly marries her and receives the Victoria Cross thereupon. The great fault, however, of the book is the hero. The author evidently intends him to be perfection, and he is simply the most insolent puppy and snob ever pourtzrayed, even in a novel. Walter
Forest, the young "gentleman farmer," is ten times more both a man and a gentleman, but clearly the author thinks little of him.
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