The Sun.
London, England, 1858-03-01 00:00:00

subtle discrimination of liunian character. What
diversity there is in the chief of those already in-
troduced ! Gentleman Waite, the strolling player,
about whom the whole interest of the story re-
volves. Waife, with the histrionic genius of an
Edmund Kean, with more than Kean's resources,
and almost as much apparently of his imputed im-
providence. Guy Dwell, tee great Statesman—
under a cloud—seciudol from the world either ix
his ancestral house at Fawley Manor House, or
wandering at rsndoin pour se destraire over the
fairer regions of the Continent. Mysterious,
shambling, crab-fashioned Richard Fairthorn,
with that dulcet Zauberflote of his, with the war-
bling notes of which lie chases away for a while the
woeful memories of the Saul of Politics. Francis
Vance, the bright-eyed artist, certainly in time to
become a Royal Academician. Lionel Haughton,
the young hero of the book, frank, manly, unso-
phisticated, a kind of a more able Young Squire
Hazledean, with an eye, like Young Hazledean, for
the army as his profession. 'Cobbler Merle, of
Willow Lane—the honest humbug ! with his magic
crystal and his astrological predictions. Manager
Rugee, with an ever lively ambition to compass
the taking at last of the York Theatre. Excelient,
child-like Jusis h Ha. topp, the mayor of G ttesi ioro',
with his Fidus Achatrs in he form of watchful Mr.
Williams. Samuel Adolphus Poole, be:orernen-
tioned—" a would-be hawk with a pigeon's liver ;
a would-be sportsman with a cockney's nurture."
Aristocratic Colonel Morley, " the real fine gentle-
man," and that broad contrast to him, " the
mock fine gentleman," the villain of the
tale, Jasper Leisely —in heart a rascal ; in
apparel resplendent, in person handsome, iu bearing
self-possessed—yet atter all what Lionel bluntly
calls " a snob," though our author confesses of
him that he was withal " a magnificent man—
one of royal nature's life-guardsmen." As fur the
female characters simultaneously pourtrayed, while
they are fewer in number they aro, if possible, yet
inure strikingly contrasted titan the male charac-
ters just enumerated. With the Countess of
Montfort, at the present moment, we have only the
most distant bowing acquaintance. Yet we cannot
but feel ihat her ladyship is destined to appear in
some of the subsequent chapters of the romance
rather conspicuously. With the pretty widow,
Mistress Jessica Haughton, mother of Lionel, we
are more intimately acquainted, and we very much
fear that familiarity here also has brought about
its usual consequence—contempt. Several minor
dames flit across the scene at intervals; snob for
example as the stately and haughty, yet joyous and
sprightly, Lady Selina Vipont, who has such a
charming glance of commendation to bestow on
those pretty sprigs on that horrid coloured print
down at Richmond. Or, thrifty Mrs. Saunders,
the cottager, whose humble lodgers take away
vrith them the glow from her grate and the sun-
beam from the pane of her lattice. Or, again,
simple, red-elbowed, horny-handed Bridgett
Greggs, the London housemaid. Above all,
there are the two chief female characters in
"What will he do with it 1" whose names have
not yet been mentioned. One as yet but a
child, pretty, graceful, intelligent, more than
intelligent, gifted, little Sophy ; designated
euphoniously on the playbills Julia Araminta.
A child still, yet one so charmingly precocious that
already she has awakened in the susceptible heart
of Lionel the first tender thrills of the master
passion. Seeing her, he floats in a world of deli-
cious dreams, over the moonlit waters of the
Thames. It is the old, old story, told again to
us bewitchingly. It is the echo of the sweet words
of the refrain of Metastasio—
" 0 belle Venere,
Madre d'Amore :
0 bells Venere,
Che sole eel
Placer chgli uomini,
E degli Dei."
Wondrously different from pretty Sophy is the
other hinted personage in petticoats, that , grim
" horse godmother" (as the phrase is, whatever
the phrase may mean)—Mother Crane, Arabella
Crane, seemingly upon many occasions the evil
genius, but in reality the good genius of that ar-
rant Tags bond Jasper Losely, for whom her poor
woman's heart has a strange, gentle, humanising
weakness. Such, in brief, are the dramatis persons
moving to and fro here upon the stage, having their
fitful exits and entrances, their dialogues and
their soliloquies, their surprises and their
equivoques, in part after part of " What will
he do with it 1" We are watching the pro'
grass of the narrative with eager interest
and curiosity, wondering often in regard to each of
toe fortunes here recounted by the novelist—What
will be do with it I Marvelling most of all what
may have been the imputed crime, in reality the
agonising misfortune of poor old "Grandy
Wade What may be the significance of that costly
pocket-book of Losely'd ?—a pocket-book " Sar-
danapalus would not have given to himself." What
the meaning of those tender words worked in gold
thread upon the silken lining t " Souviens-tor de
to Gabrielle 1" Who this Gabrielle may he 1 What
may be the secret family grief of Guy Darrell ?
driving him into seclusion from his " pride of
plsce" as orator and staiesman. What may be the
s lime of the evident interest taken in the name of
Lady Montfort by Arabella Crane and Jasper
Losely ? Above all, in regard to pretty little Soplif,
we are disposed to wonder as Hood did over the
" One More Unfortunate"—
" Who was her father,
Who was her mother,
Has she a sister,
Has she a brother?"
For the solution of all which bewildering doubts
and difficulties the readers of " What will he do with
it 1" now wait with delighted solicitude.

SPORTING NOTES.