Kate RandaPs Bargain. By Mrs. Eiloart. 3 vols. (Samuel Tinsley.)
—It is always a drawback to have a novel too plainly ticketed with its subject. That Kate Randal will marry for money a man whom she does not love is obvious at once, and it is also equally obvious what penalty she will pay for her misdoing. She will find out too late that she has a heart, and but that we feel pretty sure that Mrs. Eiloart does not like to introduce catastrophes of that kind, might come to the very gravest trouble. Kate Randal herself, then, fails to interest us. Curiously enough, considering the feminine authorship of the book, the best thing in it is the portrait of Harold Leigh, a portrait so natural, so free from exaggeration, as to give a strong presumption of its being drawn from life. Harold Leigh is a litterateur, a combination, not so common as some writers think, of the unsuccessful writer and successful critic. His worldliness, which, however, does not prevent him from having a heart, his kindly tolerance of things and persons that he does not like, the vanity which only conceals some real strength of intellect and purpose, all these features are drawn with subtlety and skill. Beyond this character, which, however, is quite sufficient to redeem the book, we can find little to praise.
Previous page
