Vida : Study of a Girl. By Amy Dunsmuir. 2
vele. (Macmillan.) —It is scarcely doing justice to this novel to call it hopeful, the epithet which we commonly apply to a meritorious first effort. There is more than hope in it, there is performance. Vida is the daughter of a Scotch minister, a hard, unsympathising man, who does not understand the warmth and life of his daughter's nature. Across this girl's path, while she is yet a child, comes the hero of the story, then a lad numbering two or three more years. Of him we never know very much. He is of an ordinary type, and it is sufficient to say that there is nothing either weak or unnatural in the portraiture of him. But Vida's other lover, if " lover " is not too common-place a mama to be given to one who shows so tender and watchful a devotion, is Mr. Jefferies, a neighbouring minister. There is something ex- ceedingly pathetic in the history of this man's affection. It is quite sufficient by itself to prove that Miss Dunsmair is possessed of no common power of studying and describing character. Even better is the picture of old Nannie, the faithful servant of the house, who passes away, worn out with diligent service, when Vida has just reached womanhood. The description of the old woman's death-bed is quite admirable. What a' tender touch it is when the girl, just come back from school, is troubled that the dying woman will never see the pictures which have won a prize, or wear the woollen shawl ahe has knitted for her :—" And now you'll never need it !" she cries. "You'll never see it ! It's all no use !" -"Dinna say that, bairn," said Nannie, tenderly. "It heartens me to hear hoe wedl ye've wroucht, and that ye wroncht the better for the sake o' yer mild nurse. I wad likit to lute seen the picture. And for the shawl, I'm thinkin' I feel the warmth o't even noo shoot tny hert." This is an excellent book.
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