Books in Brief. 



479 



Countess Daphine. By"Ritn." (Stanley Paul. 

 2S. net.) 

 A pathetic story of two Italian musicians which is told 

 by their respective violins, an Amati and a Stradi- 

 varius. 



Devoted Sparkes. By W. Pett Ridge. 

 (Methuen. 6s.) 

 A delicious account of a regular little cockney servant. 

 who is the personification of courage, tact, and rapid 

 thinking. Turned out of her home by a stepmother 

 she by chance sees a lady who is called " Miss G." 

 By another chance she manages to enter her service, 

 and from time to time successfully engineers great 

 benefits for her mistress. Her one ideal has been to 

 become a sort of maid-companion and humble friend 

 to Miss C. but her unselfishness does not obtain this 

 reward. Hetty Sparkes has brought about a happy 

 marriage for her mistress, without her knowing who 

 planned that the adorer should come at the right 

 minute; and .so it happens that Miss C, when saying 

 good-bye to all the maids, leaves Hetty with this re- 

 mark : "I am sure, I am perfectly certain I know 

 your face quite well. It is Emily, isn't it? Good-bye. 

 Good-bye, everybody ! " Only a Mr. Pett Ridge 

 could treat such an original theme in a manner so 

 bright that even Hetty's disappointment is not 

 depressing. 



Dameley Place. By Richard Bagot. (Methuen. 



Marion Crawford's sympathy with and vivid picturing 

 of Italian places and people would be a greater loss 

 to us if Mr. Bagnt were not ready to supply that loss. 

 This is the fifth or si.<th novel in which the characters 

 are chiefly noble, some of them being old friends. 

 A young noble, Giovanni Rossano, is told by an artist 

 friend that a visit to Walden will be greatly to his 

 advantage, as it is one of the finest specimens extant 

 of the old-fashioned English country village. There 

 he is brought into contact with an extraordinary recluse 

 named Darneley, who invites him to a house which has 

 hitherto been closed to visitors like a besieged 

 town, and when he returns to Italv he bears with him 

 an invitation to visit him again. Rossano's mother is 

 a great landowner in Italy. She sends him as her 

 agent to a distant property, close to which is living the 

 "ward" of Mr. Darneley. Naturally she becomes the 

 heroine of the story, which is not only delightful in 

 itself, but is keenly interesting berause of the psychic 

 influence which is supposed to have brought them to- 

 gether, and for the insight into certain phases of 

 Italian spiritism. 



The Ens;rnve Square Mystery. By Arthur W. 

 Marrhmont. (Hoddcr and .Sfouphton. 6s.) 

 In which three friends, one of whom is an MP., are 

 present at a supposed murder and make the fatal 

 blunder of running away without telling the police. 

 There is. '<! course, blackmail, and one of the three is 

 accused of what really is a murder; the mystery being 

 the difficirllv of finding the perpetrator of this last 

 crime. Of course there is a happy ending. 



Her Majesty the Flapper. By A. E. James. 

 (Stanlry Paul. 6s.) 

 A reprint of these amusing stories in book form. 



A .Star of the East. By Charles E. Pcarce. 

 (Stanley Paul. 6s.) 

 An interesting story of the Mutiny by this clever writer 

 ending in a tragedy. 



The Lighted ]Vay. By E. Phillips Oppenheim. 

 (Hodder and Stoughton. 6s.) 



.•\n absorbing novel of adventure, introducing a City 

 merchant and his wife; a Portuguese noble; and a 

 delicate invalid who dreams fairy tales, and so keeps 

 up the courage of a well-born young fellow who has 

 fallen into adversity. There is one murder at least, 

 and a certain amount of shooting. The Lighted Way is 

 the river as seen from the top windows of a house on 

 the Embankment. 



Sisters-in-Chief. By Dorothy a'Beckett Terrell. 

 (Cassell. 3s. 5d.) 



The book was written in answer to a competition de. 

 signed to secure fiction which would embody and 

 appeal to the taste of the modern girl. It deserves 

 not only the prize of ^^250 which was awarded, but to 

 find a place on every shelf where young people are in 

 evidence. 



L. J. Beeston. 



By Fred. M. White. (Ward, 



iJagobert's Childrev. By 

 (Stanley Paul. 6s.) 



.V series of keenly interesting episodes of the Franco- 

 German War, in which, needless to say, fighting and 

 adventures bear a large part. The "children" are a 

 band of twelve Franc-tireurs, several of them men 

 with the highest ideals. 



One of Marlborough's Captains. By Morice 

 Gerard. (Hodder and Stoughton. 6s.) 



The title shows the period of the story, which is 

 written with the greatest vigour. The description in 

 the opening chapter of the ambush in which Marl- 

 borough and Prince Kiigene were almost taken, and 

 the siege of the Castle of Hansau, with the rescue of 

 its chatelaine, read like one of the stories of the 

 fighting knights of mediaeval times. 



The Open Door. 

 Lock. 6s.) 



A capitally-written story of intrigue and adventure. 

 The novel opens with the old picture of a poor girl 

 substituting herself for the rich friend who has died. 

 Naturally one expects of Mr. White an original way 

 of presenting even that old statement that " Ouecn 

 Anne is dead," and the reader will not be disappointed 

 in him. 



.1 Modern Arab. By Theodora Wilson Wilson. 

 (Stanley Paul. 6s.) 



This takes us into Westmorland, where there lives 

 a squire who acts like the king who desired Naboth's 

 vineyard. The unfortunate farmer who is his victim, 

 the sympathising doctor, the woman painter who upsets 

 the apple-cart, and many another character are care- 

 fully described, but the novel rather suffers from the 

 consequent prolixity. 



TRAVEL, &c. 



Lords and Ladies of the Italian Lakes. By 

 Edgcumbe Stalcy (John Long. 12s. 6d. 

 net.) 



The author, who has sauntered much in the North 

 Italian lakeland, has atlcmpled here to revivify the 

 ravishing scenes and lovely dwxilings of the region, 

 linking them with sonic of their most interesting 



