The Sun.
London, England, 1867-03-14 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Off the Line. By Lady Charles Thynne. Two

vols. Hurst and Blackett.

This is a very charming story, very interesting
throughout, and very original both in its purpose
and its treatment. Sybil Morley, the heroine, is a
beautiful, impetuous, wilful girl, unaccustomed, from
early childhood, to any restraint or discipline.
" Petted and contradicted by her brothers, idolised
by her father, scolded by her nurse, and spoiled by
her mother, it was not wonderful that at eight years
old Sybil Morley was a most unmanageable
young lady, and that she contrived to make all
around her more or less slaves of her childish
caprice." At eight years old such a state of
affairs might appear immaterial, and even amusing,
but at eighteen the results of such training, or went
of training, became very sadly manifest. Death
having deprived her of her father, and ill health and
an ardent temperament rendering her mother quite
unequal to the task of guiding her, Sybil
is left to her own desires, the somewhat arbi-
trary interference of her elder brother 01317
arousing her proud and undisciplined nature
to rebellion. We do not propose to betray the
secrets of the story, which, as we have already
said, is very interesting, and some of the incidents
of which will very probably take the reader by
surprise. We must confess that we had expected
a different result to the unfortunate expedition to
Richmond. The fair heroine is to be congratulated
upon her, assuredly unmerited, escape, and the fair
authoress upon her skill in baffling the expectations
of the reader. It is very seldom that we (hack-
neyed novel-readers as we are) can experience
the pleasure of being surprised at any story, and
when such rare occasions do occur, we are glad to
acknowledge the fact in token of our appreciation
of the writer's skill. The character of Belief
Feltham, the fisherman, is very carefully described.
His ultimate disappearance is almost too sudden
and too submissive, though it is true that the
object of his introduction had been
effected.
Again, the last appearance of Mrs. Felthaal
is somewhat too " sensational," and not quite
in keeping with the general style of the work,
which is eminently simple and natural. Geoffrey Morley, Sybil's soldier brother, is very happilysketched, and contrasts effectively with the scholarly
but somewhat austere Eustace. The moral of thestory.
which is very happily worked out, is expressed la
the concluding sentence. A mother is reproved by
a friend for keeping her children in too strict dis-
cipline. "Nothing," says the captious friend, "1,6,
so tiresome as children that are kept in one groove.
" Surely that is not the worst thing that can befall
a child," rejoins the more prudent mother. " Think
of my early life, and if I have not come to dread
everything that tramples on conventionalism, or
breaks down the barriers that should exist in a
girl's mind. I am not afraid of their keeping in the
same groove ; but very much of everything that,
may tend to make them run off the line ;
yet it is discipline and not austerity that the authe-
rem wisely recommends to the guardians of the
young. " Over indulgence to a child is usually_
very much deprecated," she remarks, '4 but want of
sympathy and a congenial atmosphere has effects
that arc much more lastingly injurious." Its the
hapless fortune of poor Sybil Morley to suff.er
from both these evils, an absence of all control
early childhood and unsympathising austerity in
her imprudent girlhood. The mothers and daugh-
ters who may happen to read her history may de:
rive profit as well as pleasure from the results of her
chequered experience.