n her father, her brother, and her sister
were all, as it were, under her eye, and safe to remain indoors for the
night.'

The general praise won by _Uncle Piper_ for its author as a delineator
of character appears to have decided her to give increased attention to
her ability in this direction. The immediate result was scarcely a happy
one. The analytical bias disclosed in the first story was largely
extended in the second, with the usual accompaniment of a decrease in
action and humour. Pauline Vyner, the central figure of _In Her
Earliest Youth_, a sensitive and speculative girl, marries without love
a man who has saved the life of a child to whom she is much attached. In
tastes and intellectual bent the pair are almost without anything in
common. The story--an unusually long three-volume one--is mainly a
minute study of Pauline's disillusionment during the early period of her
wifehood: how she escaped the temptations placed in her way by a man who
had formerly attracted her; and how, with the birth of her first child,
she experienced the dawn of affection for its father.

The story is excessively expanded for the small amount of dramatic
movement it contains. Only three characters are prominently described,
and these too seldom through the medium of dialogue. The central motive,
moreover, is lacking in strength. It is difficult to appreciate the
tragic pathos of so common a matrimonial error as Pauline's, especially
as George, though uncongenial in his tastes, and not exempt from the
ordinary weaknesses of men, is entirely devoted to her, and would
readily have improved under her influence, had she chosen to exert any.
Tasma's more recent work is better both in spirit and literary
construction. Very sympathetic and entertaining is the narrative, in
_Not Counting the Cost_, of the adventures of the Clare family in their
quixotic travels in search of the cousin who is to restore them a
long-lost heritage. In this story and _The Penance of Portia James_ the
author gives some interesting scenes of Paris life. But to get the best
samples of her humour, one must return to her first novel. The burlesque
of Piper's pompous, genteel brother-in-law is delicious. Mr. Cavendish
affects to be revolted by the necessity of being indebted to the
_ci-devant_ butcher, while secretly luxuriating in his munificence.
Finally, as a means of discharging some of his obligations, he conceives
the project of hunting up a pedigree for his pl