A Wilful Young "Woman. By A. Price. 3 vole. (Horst
and Blackett.)—This is an excellent tale, and shows by a conspicuous example, which some of our lady-noveliste might profitably note, that it is quite possible to rouse a strong interest in a love-story without even an allusion to unlawful passion. Sydney Alwyn is the daughter of a highly respected country lawyer, who, led into extrava- ganoe by his wife, and swindled at the same time in some mining speculation, fails, and drags down by his rain a number of humble
neighbours who have tinged him. Sydney bears for the first time of this deplorable event just before she reaches her twenty-first birth- day and so becomes entitled to a small fortune. Her " wilfulness " consists in making all the amends she can by distributing this fortune —sir thousand pounds it is in all—among those who had suffered by her father's error. Her worldly mother, who bad been provided for by settlement, and had made no effort out of ample means to remedy any of the mischief that her husband had wrought, strongly opposes this Quixotic act, as she calls it ; bat Sydney persists, and gets her reward. There are, we think, defects in the plot. The purpose in which Robert Hurst is interrupted, does not seem to be in harmony with the general strength and self-control of his character. We have been a little puzzled, too, by the story of the crime, which, with its adversity and prosperity, is so convenient an instrument in the developing of the plot. But, on the whole, for sound sense, good feeling and taste, and a style which can be both pathetic and humor- ous on occasion, this is a book which cannot easily be surpassed.
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