FIVE NOVELS OF MERIT.* LITERARY mosaic—on no account to be
confounded with the less artistic article of the kind known as patchwork—is a simile peculiarly appropriate to Winifred Mount, inasmuch as the book consists of many different, highly finished, small pieces, each of such good workmanship as to stand the test of inspection by itself, apart from the rest, and all fitted together accurately into one complete and agreeable pattern. It is true that when the mysterious secret weighing upon the heroine's mind and (to some extent) overshadowing her life, is at last made known, it proves to be a mere molehill quite un- worthy of the significance attributed to it; and true also that sensation-lovers will possibly grumble at the work for not containing anything sufficiently thrilling to suit their taste. But these trifling shortcomings are hardly noticed as such, because the merit and charm do not depend upon plot or incident, but upon the author's appreciation of charactdr, quick and humorous perception of all that goes on around him, ability to reproduce his impressions in print, and other gifts qualifying him for the post of a satirical, yet not unfriendly, critic of human nature wherever he happens to encounter it,—whether in a drawing-room or a sick-room, amongst gutter-children or ladies and gentlemen. Truth to life is recognised in all the well-painted miniatures that fill his pages; and sundry small absurdities of frequent occur- rence are held up to ridicule,—as, e.g., the common trick of introducing into conversation some pet expression without regard to its meaning, which is made fun of in Lady Twine's habitual use of her favourite formula, " If you know what I mean," so indiscriminately as to apply it even to the weather and her daughter ! Good studies of three diverse types of girlhood are afforded by Wini- fred (whose remarkable self-reliance seems to us to have been due rather to peculiarity of circumstances than dis- position) and her two friends. Unlike in most respects, they are nevertheless alike in fixing their affections upon the same fortunate young gentleman, which mark of high favour one is not disposed to grudge him, even though one may not succeed in discovering any special reason for it ; and when, after dallying more or less with all three, he finally casts the handkerchief to Winifred, the arrangement is felt by every one (including her disappointed, but not inconsolable, rivals) to be entirely as it should be, even though his pairing off with either of the other two would probably not have provoked any very violent outburst of indignation. Elsie and Mrs. Luttrell, Lady Lambeth, and Agatha's parents, may be cited as samples of the genre wherein the writer excels; improbable an d the only personage whose behaviour strikes us as being mprobable is Mr. Mount,—there was really nothing in either the circumstances or himself (as far as is seen of him) to justify his extraordinary banishment of his daughter.
* (1.) Winifred Mount. By Richard Pt7oe. London : Methuen.—(2.) The Maiden's Progress, By Violet Hunt. London Osgood, MoIlvaine, and Co.-- (3.) The Dead Gallant. By Outram Tristram. London : Ward, Look, and Bowdon. —(4 ) The Star of Fortune. By T. E. Muddook, London : Chapman and Rail. —(5.) A Troublesome Pair. By Leslie Keith. London: Bentley and Son. A butterfly whose existence should be unduly prolonged would, we imagine, suffer terribly from ennui and cravings after a raison d'are ; and in the heroine of The Maiden's Progress is seen at once the human counterpart of such an insect, and also a most amusing and vivacious embodiment of the product of the present day, generally known as the New Woman. Whether this article is to be regarded as a self- evolved female development, or as a creation and incarnation of the spirit of the age, is a problem not touched upon in Violet Hunt's brilliant and piquant sketch of Moderna, a girl who, whatever faults she has, is certainly a favourable specimen of her kind, and summed up very fairly by the description of her by one of her friends as being a " good sort, but bad form." She " does everything, tries everything, and gets bored with everything," but one thing at any rate she does not do, and that is give the reader a dull moment ; for from the first page, when she is seen, at the age of eighteen, anxiously awaiting her " coming-out " ball-dress, to her final appearance, nine years later, when she is left happily engaged to be married, the history of her and her various astonishing escapades is perused throughout with the liveliest interest. It is impos- sible not to sympathise with anything so natural and reason- able as her desire to gain her own experiences for herself; and in spite of her erratic career, one does not augur badly of Lord Coniston's prospect of future happiness with a wife who, if as a "bachelor-girl" she has insisted on seeing the world and "making her own mistakes," has nevertheless fully recognised that the situation would be altered materially by matrimony, and felt that if she had a husband she would be " quite idiotically careful not to give him away." The leading characteristics of women of her sort are apparently irrepres- sible longing for independence, energy, curiosity, and a rest- less sense of the necessity of developing their personality. And when, as in her case, these attributes are coupled with parents who make no attempt to exercise any restraint over their children, and acquiesce contentedly in the view that " a mother is only a kind of helpless survival of the unfittest—to be trained and educated and dragged up to date as far as her obtuseness and obstinacy will allow "—then there is not much to wonder at in such a result as the heroine of this remark- ably clever and entertaining novel.
The text of The Dead Gallant is a quotation from Isaac D'Israeli to the effect that, amidst intestine struggles, "the eternal forces of Nature acting on Humanity," when observed calmly, reveal virtues and sufferings in private individuals to evoke sympathy and admiration even from opponents; and part, at any rate, of this text is illustrated very sucoessfully by Mr. Outram Tristrai's two clever historical stories con- tained in the volume before us. These have a considerable family likeness in general outline and structure, as well as in their main design, for both are founded on the power to excite a sort of passionate devotion wherein loyalty and love are so intermingled as to be hardly distinguishable, that is attri- buted in " The Dead Gallant " to Mary, Queen of Soots, and in " The King of Hearts " to the Pretender; and both depict the luring to destruction of unconscious victims by wily Ministers,—the crafty wirepuller being in one case Wal- singham (whose carefully executed portrait is certainly not flattering), and in the other Lord Bute. But in order completely to illustrate the theme chosen, it is evi- dently necessary to call forth the reader's admiration as well as sympathy ; and since this will scarcely be done by a book in which, though all the characters are more or less open to pity, there is not a single one to command conscien- tious approbation, therefore, as we have already said, the exemplification of the text is only partial. The female spy, Maude, for instance, is in some respects so hateful, that it goes sorely against the grain to be compelled to be even sorry for her; compassion for Babington's sad fate is blended with contempt for his weakness; Foster is too insignificant and prone to dissipation to be a satisfactory object of esteem; and Miss Hawley, who is the most likeable personage in the whole book, goes very near to forfeiting our good opinion in conse- quence of the reprehensible disposition to double-dealing and insincerity exhibited in her behaviour to the young gentleman whom she finally consents to marry on condition of his risking his life for her idol. The author evinces strong dramatic instinct and turn for romance, and treats his subject with much skill ; but as he is loss happy in his selection of human material suitable for Us purpose than he is in his manner of dealing with this material, he may not inaptly be compared to a metal-smelter, whose employment of ore of inferior quality causes his result to fall short of the perfection justly to be expected from the excellence of his furnaces and process of treatment.
A story of the Mutiny in India, told by one who was stationed there at the time, and recording scenes and incidents that came under his own personal observation, could hardly fail to possess interest even were the narrative style indifferent; and the author of The Star of Fortune, on the contrary, narrates extremely well. He does not make the too common mistake of weakening the effect of a real and deeply interest- ing theme by flowery language and attempts at ornate em- bellishment ; steers clear of the Scylla and Charybdis of verbosity and baldness ; gives graphic and exciting accounts of the defence of a " godown " and other occurrences at Meerut and Jhansi ; and contrives, whilst telling his tale simply and directly, to convey a vivid idea of the terribly sudden bursting of the storm whose ominous preliminary mutterings had been inaudible to all save some few individuals of exceptionally keen hearing. But the first volume, which contains the introduction to the Indian part of the book, is not of equal merit with the second (and final) one ; for what may be called the conventional novel business that serves as pre- lude, is decidedly weak, and the dramatis persona are so little interesting intrinsically, that we only care about them because of the events wherein they figure—which produces somewhat of the effect of a picture whose painting sets off, instead of being set off by, the frame. However, the merits of the second volume make up for the deficiencies of its predecessor ; and when the play really begins, the entertainment is good enough to silence complaints at the length and inferiority of the prologue. A little more care, by-the-by, in correction of proofs would not have been out of place, so as to avoid a man being spoken of as " dangling " a child on his knee ; " sheepily " being substituted for " sheepishly," and one or two similar errors.
Amiability, rather than power, is the distinguishing mark of A Trouliltsome Pair, which may be likened to a dish com- posed wholly of milk of human kindness, unblended with gall or venom to impart any really bitter flavour ; or else to a rose- strewn path where, though thorns cannot in the nature of things be wholly absent, they at all events cause no very painful wounds. It is a good class of light drawing-room comedy, wholesome in tone and amusing enough to be read easily and with pleasure, even though the smiles which it gives rise to, may here and there be varied by a yawn, and there are no very salient features likely to prevent it from being as easily forgotten. The character most worthy of attention seems to us Mary. Her love-phial having been shattered by disillusionment respecting her husband, she strives heroically to make the best of that misfortune, and for this purpose endeavours to adopt a sort of quasi-hardness as a shield against future blows of the same kind, and to fill the void in her life with flowers and pets ; but after a long struggle she is forced to recognise that these things do not satisfy her needs, and then, moved partly by the craving of her sex for an object to " mother," partly by a sense of lone- liness, and partly by genuine goodness of disposition, she finally consents to take up her cross in the shape of the man whom she pities and is bound to by marriage vows, though she oannot possibly esteem or love him. Her figure is very well drawn, and approaches a deeper vein of thought and feeling. than either of the others.
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