and his too superfluous daughters, his daughters range themselves each against the other and a grand bedlam ensues.

The six keep things going and with the canary, the dog, the cat, the Pembertons and finally the Irish cousin, life is in no wise empty, and in no wise dull. It is a collection of human specimens diverse and distinctive, and Miss Michelson has spun out the incidents of their days in a most interesting fashion. One is satisfied at the finish to have spent an enjoyable hour and a half with the mischievous, squabbling, yet withal tender-hearted little. group, the Madigans.

who, after her mourning traveling abroad, has numerous adventures. She is tired of conventionality and does things which, if her bringing up had been less straitlaced, she would never have dreamed of trying. She knows many people and goes house-partying and visiting, meeting nearly the same people each time.

Marie, of Chicago, is one of the most attractive among the women. She is extremely Western, and rich, and marries into one of the most aristocratic French families. The contrast between Marie and Jeanne de la Sour, the languid, charming French woman, is most striking.

But the people who interest us most are the lovers of Grace herself-Sibvorsva, ready to do her bidding and marry her whenever she is willing; Prince Ulrich, commanding her to marry him because he loves her! he adores her; Serge, whom she has idealized, and who falls, alas, far short when she meets him after years of separa

tion, and last Lord Bobby, who if she loves him wants permission to love her.

The letters remind one somewhat of the "Visits of Elizabeth," but they are even more attractive since Grace is not treading on new ground entirely, but is a woman of the world and shows us both sides of the story. The book is well written, witty and charmingly entertaining.

A Traitorous Loyalist*

B

RILLIANA HARBEN hung out the King's flag in defiance of Cromwell. The intrepid Colonel dispatched a band to besiege the castle and receive the lady loyalist's surrender. A fantastic adventurer lends aid to Lady Brilliana in the form of a stout arm and a devoted heart. The leader of the Roundheads, a Captain Cloud becomes Lady Brilliana's prisoner and during his imprisonment the loyalist maiden and the Roundhead enemy fall in love with each other. Then Lady Brilliana has to plead her cause to the King, and in a moment of caprice Charles grants the pardon. A trap is laid by a rival lover to effect the death of Cloud, and the fantastic henchman, as an accomplice to the plot, fails. in his part and lays down his life for his lady's affianced husband.

Mr. McCarthy has not yet written a story to match "If I Were King." Until he does so we cannot in conscience laud his work, for "The Proud Prince" and "The Lady of Loyalty House" are both examples in retrogradation.

A

Before the Crisist

STORY to stir all the brutal passions of man, showing in the coarsest way that "war" and the paths leading to it are, as Sherman said, "Hell." John Brown, with his wild fanaticism, his earnest desire to sacrifice self for the slave, should have the dramatic force to arrest, and win, but this is repulsive. "Before the Crisis" is the picture of the battle, of the contending forces for Kansas, wherein John Brown and his forces represent all

*THE LADY OF LOYALTY HOUSE. By Justin Huntly McCarthy, author of "The Proud Prince," etc. Harper & Bros.

BEFORE THE CRISIS. By F. B. Mott. John

Lane.

that is good, the pro-slavery element, all that was evil. No good can come of arousing the wicked, bitter, brutal passions, now that slavery is dead, and no one wants to resurrect it. It was an evil, but all slaves were not sufferers, nor all masters devils, as the author pictures.

It seems to me no compliment to compare "The Crisis," of Winston Churchill, a book with ideas and a plot, with this crude tirade, that fails to bring out the best in that extraordinary fanatic, John Brown.

Every great change has its path strewn with pitiful failures. Every upheaval is preceded by majestic martyrdoms, and the Puritan captain in Kansas and the battle of the handful of Harper's Ferry were necessary for that ending tragedy in Washington. But this as truth and a picture of the leader and the events, is inadequate and a failure. Those who consecrate themselves to a cause and die for it are worthy of a better setting and a more exalted atmosphere.

KATE BLACKISTON STILLE.

The Flower of Youth*

R

ARELY does an author so win the hearts of the people as did Roy Rolfe Gilson in both "In the Morning Glow" and "When Love Is Young," and now he has given us another book that promises to be no less popular. "The Flower of Youth" is the story of a man's life, told as though the man were dreaming about it. It is written in the most fascinating manner, tenderly and with that exquisite touch of sympathy which means that Mr. Gilson understands people and loves them.

The various characters that we meet in the book are not important, and yet each one stands out distinctly. We feel that we know the little "Princess" of the big house across the road as well as we know Uncle Jerry's two small sons. But the story tells of one man's life, and these others simply touch it in passing.

The book is one to read when you are alone in the twilight, to dream over and to love. Reading it is simply sitting on a low

*THE FLOWER OF YOUTH. By Roy Rolfe Gilson, author of "In the Morning Glow," etc. Harper & Bros.

hassock at Uncle Jerry's feet, as did Barbara, and listening as he dreams aloud. The fire is burning and the room is growing darker and darker-the book slips from your hand-Uncle Jerry's voice Jerry's voice grows fainter and fainter-and then ceases and you are living over again the scenes of your own childhood, loving as only a child can love, and growing, growing until suddenly you are yourself grown and-the book is read again. Truly Mr. Gilson has a power that is marvelous and an interpretation of the things of life that is rare.

and also in "Co.," the sort of human nature that finds expression in diverting and whimsical behavior of the light comedy variety, and that the reader enjoys in much the same way that he would if he sat in a theatre box and saw it depicted on the stage.

All the characters in the book live in Bohemia. But since Bohemia is a vast domain, peopled by many and diverse tribes, it will be well to explain that this particular Bohemia is an innocuous district, the dwellers in which lay claim to their title therein by reason of their connection with a Fleet street newspaper and their membership (the membership at least of the masculine portion) in a mildmannered club known as the Autolycus.

The dwellers in this Bohemia are a loveable set, from old-school Peter Hope, godfather of "Tommy," down to the mas

querading "Babe," whose adventures as set forth in the chapter called "The Babe Applies for Shares" are as amusing as any confusion of masculine and feminine. identities always have proved and always

will prove to be to a mixed public. Of all the chapters that one of the aristocratic dinner party is the most downright funny. On the whole, Mr. Jerome has given us a very fair sample of the pleasantly titillating wit of which he has always been abundantly capable. H. T. P.

"D

WILLIAM F. PAYSON Author of Debonnaire"

Debonnaire*

EBONNAIRE" is a dainty little tale of New France and New Amsterdam. It centres about the precipitate wooing by which Louis de Cadillac, called by his soldier companions Louis le Debonnaire, wins his cousin, the beautiful Renee de Cadillac, who was to have married the Attorney General of New Amsterdam. Le Debonnaire owns a miniature, an heirloom, and he falls in love with the exquisite face portrayed thereon. By chance he learns that a facsimile of that face is to be found in New Amsterdam and learns, moreover, that the owner is a cousin sometimes removed. Forthwith he makes a bet with the Governor of New France whereby at a certain

*DEBONNAIRE. By William Farquar Payson. Illustrated by Thomas Fogarty. McClure, Phillips & Co.

hour on a certain date he is to present to him Renee de Cadillac as the betrothed wife, not of Louis de Cadillac, but of Louis le Debonnaire or lose two thousand pounds. Then he goes under his nickname to lay siege to the maiden's heart and with no little adventure and danger gains her consent, elopes with her and enters the presence of the Governor just as the clock strikes the hour agreed upon.

Mr. Payson's touch is light; his words. paint dainty, delicately hued vignettes. The conception of le Debonnaire is original; this scion of a great old house, this outward fop with a heart of gold and an arm skilled to brave deeds is a picturesque figure about which the delicate perfume of a gentle charm clings and wins away the heartiest of sympathy. It is all like some pleasing comedy of the quaint elder days, a picture delicately harmonious, exquisitely detailed, a rare bit of mosaic immortalizing the chivalry of a bygone age.

Le Debonnaire makes a wonderful appeal, a light, but a lasting impression, one will remember him and often perhaps with that remembering will be stimulated anew by his merry optimism, his unfailing dauntlessness.

A Dainty Love Comedy*

Τ

HE light comedy is becoming a vogue in fiction. The American brain grows more tired year by year, and the novelist has discovered his sacred mission to be the supplying of easy reading for a wearied public.

"The Castle Comedy" wins admiration for its daintiness. There is nothing serious about it, even in the most tragic situation. Its small block of print to a page, its elaborate decorations put in in Miss Elizabeth Shippen Green's best style, make it at once a volume for the boudoir or the drawing-room. To the feminine element it will appeal, this headlong rush into matrimony, through all manner of setbacks and perils, made by a wilful young English girl, turned seventeen and a French Count, one of Napoleon's officers, who in the disguise of a dancing-master enters the home of his English cousin and

*THE CASTLE COMEDY. By Thompson Buchanan. Illustrated and decorated by Elizabeth Shippen Green. Harper & Bros.

enemy and easily takes the love of the daughter.

The Vicomte de St. Croix had stolen valuable papers from Wellington's headquarters and a price was put on his head by the English.

Undaunted, he comes to England in disguise and has his romance under the very noses of the men who are hunting for him. There is an exciting duel in the tale, all of which is executed in a vivacious manner likely to appeal. The impetuosity of youth is evident throughout, and the characterization is conventional, but the book serves well its purpose and amuses mightily. It will make an excellent gift-book for the holiday season.

The

TH

Queen's Advocate*

HE new novel by Mr. Marchmont follows nearly as close as possible on the heels of the late Servian trouble. Mr. Marchmont has a fashion

of picking out a region lately in the public eye for the background of each of his stories, so that one is never surprised at his choice of locale.

"The Queen's Advocate" was one of Queen Draga's followers. The narrative devotes itself to the romance of this young woman and an Anglo-American multimillionaire who is the conventional man of possibilities and action. There are many events in the tale and all quick-moving. The whole is graphically told after the accepted Marchmont manner, even to the slight floridness, but despite the small daring extravagances one has to admit that the author has a grasp of nearer Eastern affairs and that he has a command of novelistic eloquence that make this, like all of his books, go.

TH

Orraint

HIS is a brilliant piece of historical fiction, as good as anything we have had from Weyman or Anthony Hope. It is a story of the time of Henry II and Catherine De Medici. Bertrand Orrain, the narrator of the tale, was intended for the ministry, but through the

*THE QUEEN'S ADVOCATE. Illustrated. By Arthur W. Marchmont, author of "By Snare of Love," etc. Illustrated. Frederick A. Stokes & Co.

†ORRAIN. By S. Levett-Yeats, author of "The Lord Protector," etc. Longmans, Green & Co.

death of his father came into a fortune large enough to permit the following of his natural inclination, and he became a soldier. In pursuit of this avocation he meets with numerous adventures and incidentally falls in love.

Because of his bravery and his skill with the sword he is sent by the Queen as her special messenger to the south of France. On this journey he rescues Diane De Paradis, a Huguenot maiden, and one of the richest heiresses of France from a band of ruffians, headed by his step-brother, Sir Simon, who is his sworn enemy. After fulfilling his mission he is chosen to escort Diane to Paris, and place her under the protection of the Queen. Scarcely have they reached Paris when the Huguenot persecution breaks out afresh and again he has the opportunity of rescuing the

woman he loves.

It is a story with a dash and a go, full of sword play, and the romance of a stirring age, and it is interesting from first page to last.

T

Sea-Wolves*

R. C.

HE man that buys "Sea-Wolves of Seven Shores" on account of its flamboyant cover, its melodramatic illustrations, its alliterative title, and its alluring chapter heads, will be deceived. Battle, murder and sudden death he will find to his fill, but he will not find an historic novel. The "Sea-Wolves" is an extended sketch of those historic heroes who have sailed under the black flag, and it belongs in that yet unnamed division of literature between a "juvenile" and a book for adults.

The "seven shores" are those coasting on the Mediterranean-Dover Strait, the British Channel and the Irish Sea; the Caribbean; the Pacific off South America; the Atlantic north off the Carolinas; and the Asiatic Pacific. The fascinating list of "sea-mice" includes: the brother Barbarossas, Dragut and Ochiali the Renegade, who throughout the sixteenth century raided the coasts of southern Europe, seizing, among numerous spoils, Cyprus, "the sentinel of Christian Europe," which remained under the Turks until 1879; the petty pirates of the Barbary States

*SEA-WOLVES OF SEVEN SHORES. By Jessie Peabody Frothingham. Charles Scribner's Sons.