23 TRANSACTIONS. 19OI-2 



for the past ten or twelve years. Aa a Canadian novelist she 

 stands almost in. a class by herself. Her books — or at any 

 rate the best of them — are instinct with a certain quiet 

 humour, which is all her own, and which is as rare as it is 

 enjoyable. Her first, and best, book, was "A Social De- 

 parture," published in 1890. ^ In this she tells in a charm- 

 ingly fresh and original manner the adventures of herself and 

 one Orthodocia, in their unchaperoned journey around the 

 world. The book is something akin to DeMille^s "Dodge 

 Club" in plan and humour, and might also be classed with 

 Grant Allen's "Miss Cayley's Adventures" and Robert Barr's 

 "Jennie Baxter, Journalist", but it appeals to the present 

 generation more keenly than "The Dodge Club", and is vastly 

 superior, both in narrative and in the quality of its humour, 

 to the other two. Some of the •scenes, such as the Japanese 

 reporter's interview, and Orthodocia's experience in a Jap- 

 anese bath-tub, are quite irresistible. 



Her second book was "An American Girl in London, "2 

 which sufficiently describes itself. It is almost as amusing 

 and entertaining as its predecessor. This was followed bv 

 ''^The Simple .^dveniures of a Memsahib," "Vernon's Aunt,''? 

 "The Story of Sonny Sahib," "A Daughter of To-day," "His 

 Honour and a Lady," "A Voyage of Consolation," and "The 

 Path of a Star".* The last book is mnch inferior to Mrs. 

 Cotes' earlier work, and is a disappointment to those who 

 have learned to look for something above mediocrity from 

 her. 



Robert Barr began his literary life as a humorist, writing 

 for the Detroit Free Press under the pen-name of " Luke 

 Sharp." He afterwards drifted into short -stories, and from 

 that into novels and romances, and his last published book is 

 an entertaining Tolume of travels in the Mediterranean. * His 

 literary carepr has thus been a varied one. 



'1. *^A Social Departure; or How Orthodocia and I went Round 

 the World by O-urselves." London, 1890. 



2 Published originally in the Ladies Pictorial, London. 



3 18»5. 4. 1899. 



5. Hp has reoen'ly completed a volumf" of short stories. "The Merry 

 Monarch," narrating the romantic ndventures of one of the Scf>ttish 

 King . 



