478 



The Review of Reviews. 



days when a meet was to take place within a 

 mile or two of the village, was a sportsman from 

 his youth. He learned early to handle a gun 

 and knew every bird's note and every nest for 

 miles around ; in those days people were fewer 

 and birds were more numerous. Our author, 

 being intelligent and full of spirits, has plenty 

 of mischief to recount, as well as a sober 

 description of the Merchant Taylors' School of 

 those days, Exeter in particular, and college life 

 in general. The Vicar died, and the family had 

 to leave Kilby, a deadly sorrow to a youth who 

 so loved his home. Then came reverse of cir- 

 cumstances : one room in London and a bitter 

 struggle, made the worse perhaps by a tempera- 

 ment totally unsuited for town life, for Kebbel 

 was a born countryman. It can well be 

 imagined that there is a great charm in a book 

 which couples such remembrances with pen- 

 pictures of the famous people encountered in a 

 life which began when William IV. was king. 



Tlie Two Rivers, by Ernest E. Briggs (John 

 Long. 6s.). This may be a first novel, but in 

 any case Mr. Briggs tells a pleasant, senti- 

 mental, old-world story well. As it is sentimental, 

 he has wisely placed his actors in the latter half 

 of the nineteenth century (the twentieth-century 

 girl would hardly behave as his Margaret does). 

 Oddly enough, he gives a really modern step- 



mother, who is very imperfect, yet helps her 

 husband and stepchildren. The author is not 

 quite logical, for in describing two rivers he 

 gives the characteristics of a woman as being 

 beautiful, secretive, silent, with hidden, tortuous 

 ways, whilst the manly qualities are openness, 

 impetuosity, impatience, chafing at obstacles, 

 disdaining all meannesses; yet his Margaret is 

 certainly neither secretive nor tortuous, nor do 

 all his men answer to his characterisation. A 

 book which for many will have a peculiar charm. 



Haunting Shadows, by M. F. Hutchinson 

 (Methuen. 6s.). We have presented here a 

 feast of thrills for those who enjoy the ingenuity 

 which, burrowing patiently day after day, brings 

 to light the actors in a mysterious crime. A 

 murder is committed during a London fog. A 

 young visitor on her way to a neighbouring 

 house, nervous and frightened by the terrifying 

 transit, sees her cab door fly open, and through 

 the gloom a face appears and instantly dis.. 

 appears. Soon after the scared girl sees the 

 portrait of the son of the house, and recognises 

 his as the face of the man vvho is presumably 

 the murderer. Add anarchists, a detective, two 

 or three charming people, some mysterious folk, 

 and an anonymous letter-writer, and it will be 

 seen that there is plenty of scope for tense 

 suspense. 



BOOKS IN BRIEF. 



FICTION. 



My Love and I. By Martin Rcdfield. (Con- 

 stable. 6s.) 



The scene of the story is laid in the United States. 

 The writing is clever .ind the description of the various 

 characters, who are of the Bohemian order, most fas- 

 cinating. The troubler of the company is a girl with 

 " ivory face and tiny waist," and the more one reads 

 of her the better one realises that the tragedy behind 

 lies in the fact that she has a tiny soul also. The 

 trouble comes when the man who has married her 

 finds a real woman with a soul as big as his own. 

 They rise to the situation and conquer themselves, and 

 in the end find peace at least, if not happiness. 



The Turnstile. By A. E. W. Mason. (Hodder 

 and Stoughton. 6s.) 



This is certainly one of the most interesting novels 

 of the month and will have a lasting reputation. Mr. 

 Mason is apparently giving the fruits of his own 

 experience as a parliamentarian. The story begins 

 with a terrific earthquake, supposed to be in Val- 

 paraiso. Cynthia Daventry comes to England in 

 deadly fear of the man she supposes to lie her father, 

 and the fear thus engendered lasts her lifetime, 

 although she marries happily and finds much pleasure 

 in life; but the essential value of the book is the 



relation of experiences of her husband, who has gi\en 

 up the sea in order to obtain a seat in the House of 

 Commons. The satirical description of the "cheapest 

 club in London" is truthfully pungent, and the 

 development of character in Harry Raines pathetic 

 as well as interesting and true to life. 



Things as They Are. By Mrs. E. K. William- 

 son. John Long. 6s.) 



A modern romantic novel. The heroine is supposed 

 to be the daughter of a plimiber, but turns out to 

 be the child of an earl. 



Captain Hawks. By Oswald Kendall. (Stanley 

 Paul. 6s.) 



Marvellous adventures in the .Arctic Ocean in search 

 of a treasure ship. \ very amusing cockney sailor 

 provides the fun. 



A Slice of Life. By Robert Halifax. (Con- 

 stable. 6s.) 



The story has to do with the dwellers of Roper's Row, 

 in the neighbourhood of the London Docks. Mr. 

 Donno is one af those people who are quaint to read 

 about, but most difficult to live with. He, his grand- 

 daughter, and the curate are the chief characters. 



