Too Lightly Broken. 8 vols. (Samuel Tinsley.)—It is but a
very scanty supply of material that is spun out into these three VoilltUes. Lino. Heathcote, the daughter of a musician, gifted with a splendid voice and ambitious of distinction, promises her lovsr not to sing in public, and breaks her premise; hence the title of the story. "Will he forgive her?" is the question when he discovers her faithlessness, a question complicated by the fact that he fancies her to have found another lover. This other lover is a married man, whose wife has been voyaging to Australia for her health in the first lover's ship. "Will they ever be happy again ? " is question the second. The injured wife has a sister, who has also a love affair of her own. Here we ask " Will her father approve?" but are less anxious about the result, as the young lady very plainly declares her intention of marrying whether he approves or no. This is really all the substance of the plot, and the ingenuity which makes it fill between eight and nine hundred pages is certainly ill- bestowed. The author writes grammatically and with good sense. She might have constructed a single volume of average merit, instead of three that must be pronounced to bo exceedingly tedious.
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