A Pinch of Experience. By L. B. Walford. (Methuen.)—Mrs. Walford's
story is, as we should expect, clever enough, but there is not much in it, and it is certainly not agreeable reading. When we compare it with so charming a story as "A Sage of Sixteen," we find the difference very much to the disadvantage of the later work. Rhoda Lupton is a somewhat spoilt child, heiress to a fine estate, who gratifies a long-cherished desire in a visit to some Lon- don relatives. But these people are not desirable hosts. They are trying to keep up a fashionable appearance on narrow means, and they sponge on poor Rhoda in the meanest fashion, and treat her, also, when the occasion arises, with no little unkindness. The meanness and selfishness of the Sanquhar family make a picture the truth of which we are constrained to recognise, but which i8 not agreeable to look upon. Rhoda's "pinch of experience," bitter as it was, did her good, we are told, and may very well have done so ; it is even possible that the reading about it may benefit girls similarly situated—a general moderating of sanguine ex- pectations about the joys of a London season might certainly be salutary—but the subject does not make a very agreeable book.
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