The Perfect Path. By Elizabeth Glaister. 2 vols. (Smith, Elder,
and Co.)—Cordelia Ashby, commonly called "Corks" by her fast associates at Mentone, is the neglected daughter of a gentlemanly, good-for-nothing roué and gambler, Colonel Ashby. She is a lawless creature, gifted with an extraordinary facility for talking slang, and for saying sharp things to her father and her half-sister, a lady quite of the father's pattern. Bat she is conscious of a strong aspiration to become something different from what she is,—to get her feet, in short, upon "the perfect path ;" and this book is the story, told with a pathos and a humour which are both far out of the common, of how she struggled to realise the idea. She gets her first help from her mother's aunt, a quaint, vigorous old lady, who invites her on a long visit. The relations between these two are capitally described. The old lady is perplexed to the last degree by the strange dialect which the young one talks ; but she is forbearing and patient, and gets her reward in winning her niece's heartiest love. The second helper that comes on the scene is one Philip Odiarne, clergy- man of the parish. Then comes a complication. Philip Odiarne's love has long since been given away ; but Cordelia, who confounds her genuine desire to walk in the right way with the fancy,—for such it was, rather-than love,—that springs up in her for her spiritual director, has other notions. All this part of the story is told with remarkable skill, and with a good taste that is never at fault. And so comes in the third helper, Harriet Carslake, a cousin of Philip Odiarne, who has come to Mentone to die. From her
• Cordell& hears Philip's story ; to her she confesses her own folly. Meanwhile there bee come upon the scene Major Duncan, husband to the half-sister, a very earnest believer of the Plymouth Brother type, whose presence in the gambling, flirting lives which his relations have gathered round them is as "vinegar upon nitre." And then disappears from the scene, in the saddest way, one George Kingdon, Cordelia's past friend in the early days of her thoughtless- ness. We advise our readers to find out the end for themselves. No one, we are sure, will repent of having done so.
Previous page
