Can It Be True ? by Francis Henry Cliffe (Remington
and Co.), is an essentially commonplace novel that is yet not altogether devoid of promise. Monte Carlo has claimed its suicides before Mr. Cliffe told the story of Vane and the poor Russian ; material prosperity has before now been built, as in the case of the Silver- snakes, on a foundation of dishonour and propped up by forgery. The marriage of a heroine to the wrong man has preceded her marriage to the right one, like the union of Flora to Philip Beverley, which endows her with a modest fortune, and enables her to buy "a house near Richmond, surrounded by a large and beautiful garden," before, swearing she will never consent, she does consent to spend the later part of the summer and the autumn of her life with Arthur Challoner. Yet there is a good deal of power in the way both of plot-construction and of character- description, distributed over these two volumes, which may be turned to good account some day.
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