This is the subtitle of Bledisloe, an International Story, published by Cupples & Hurd, and written by Ada M. Trotter. The materials are not new, but they are nicely woven.
Bledisloe is a humdrum country place, on the Severn. At first you think it is the daughter of the extravagant and aristocratic rector who is to be the heroine; and, indeed, with her escape from the clutches of an aged millionnaire the story ends; but, in the interim, you become greatly interested in the American cousins, one of whom—Gladys, a Boston philanthropist—comes to inherit an estate. The other, wearing thin shoes, sets the county agog, and wins a baronet; while through her liveliness Aunt Pen spruces up, and is reunited to an old lover, whom she had foolishly set adrift thirty years before.
There are charming descriptions of the children of English families, so disagreeably unlike our own; and well sketched is the old servant, who does all the work in a big house, where there are four closets in a chamber, and yet finds time to go everywhere with "dear Miss Penelope." The pathetic and humorous elements are so skilfully combined, that you overlook considerable repetition.
