

Monthly Review of Literature. 95 



not the charge of partiality ; and so we shall proceed to give a brief account 

 of the tale, and, in conclusion, to add some few remarks on its merit. 



Alice Beauclerk the heroine of the tale deprived by death of her protect- 

 ress and the representative of her unknown parents, finds a temporary refuge 

 in the secluded abode of a retired Irish counsellor, a Mr. O'Grady, where she 

 becomes acquainted with a young nobleman Lord Portland the son of the 

 Marquis of Cornwall, who in the company of his tutor visits the house. Of 

 course, quite naturally, the young coronet and the heroine fall desperately in 

 love with each other. Meanwhile letters reach Alice from a certain Lady 

 Arlingham, who, in the exercise of guardianship, enjoins her removal into the 

 family of one Mr. Darby Dudley, an Irish agent of her ladyship. The lovers 

 are just allowed fairly to understand each other, when the lady is torn from 

 her dreamy bliss by the uncivil violence of as great a brute as the mephitic 

 bogs of the Emerald isle can be supposed to produce. Leaving him, his 

 darling Dudley Grove dear girls and neat knocker, for an extract at the 

 close, and taxing our reader's imagination for a conception of the many annoy- 

 ances to which Alice was subject in this elegant family, we carry her forward 

 to the day that brought Lord Portland to the " Grove." The meeting of the 

 lovers is conclusive of their future fate : " Alice, will you pity me ?" said the 

 lover. " I will," said the lady. What depended on that fatal answer the 

 sequel must disclose. Lord Portland returns to town and discovers the state 

 of his affections to his imperious mother, the intimate friend of Alice's guar- 

 dian, Lady Arlingham. The result is, that Alice's destinies are changed, and 

 from the retirement of Dudley Grove she is introduced to the glare of London 

 fashionable society ; Lord Portland, under a vow of absence from his beloved, 

 goes abroad with a diplomatic appointment. Alice's considerate guardian, 

 however, doubtless to protect her ward from the inconvenience of a lengthened 

 travel, selects for her as a compaynon de voyage, an amiable Hibernian of large 

 fortune and most unexceptionable descent, Sir Leopold Lindorf. The young 

 protegee is received with every demonstration of favour by the ladies Corn- 

 wall and Arlingham ; and by their intrigues she is forced against the current 

 of her affections into an engagement with the Irish baronet. The false intel- 

 ligence propagated by her hollow friends, of the marriage of Portland with the 

 ambassador's daughter, Lady Leonora Saville, facilitates the efforts of the 

 intriguantes, to place Alice quite out of the reach of Portland : and at last she 

 gives way and becomes the wife of the vain, silly, and wine-bibbing Sir Leo- 

 pold Lindorf. The true lover returns a day or two too late, and learns from 

 his cruel mother the true position of affairs. Months elapse, and the new- 

 married couple return from Ireland to London. Portland, not known by the 

 baronet as a quondam inamorato of his lady, is introduced to the house ; and 

 an opportunity thus presented for a renewal of the lovers' intercourse is 

 eagerly seized, which intercourse is stopped only by the strong remonstrances 

 of the beloved and virtuous lady-guardians. The same excellent ladies prevail 

 on Alice to urge the nuptials of Portland with Lady Leonora Saville, and thus 

 herself to effect an eternal separation from her lover. She consents, and 

 Portland marries. But, alas, his heart is broken "for love of Alice Gray," 

 and very soon after he sinks into a consumption. The baronet meanwhile 

 with his lady had in due season returned to the ancient domain of the Lin- 

 dorfs, and visited among other esteemed friends, the Dudley's of Dudley 

 Grove. Here, alas, the silly, stubby, little baronet, died of a drunken 

 apoplexy; and behold Alice once more free, a widow. Her days of mourning 

 were spent among her old friends the O'Gradys, in whose house she is again 

 destined to meet the being who in the same place years before enchained her 

 affections. A travelling invalid with his friends and attendants, weather- 

 bound by the snow, request the shelter of Mr. O'Gradys hospitable roof, no 

 other than the fast-sinking Lord Portland, who arrives only in time to receive 

 the soothing consolations of Alice's society, and to die in her beloved arms. 

 The hour of mourning proves to be that also of discovery and exposure. The 



