prematrimonial freakishness. Fleeing, distraught, on fire with humiliation and fury over the insult, the young maid, mistress of a fine estate and retinue of slaves, moves all with her to the newly settled colony of Savannah, and there casts about, one must say with most unmaidenly speed, for a sword-arm strong enough to avenge her disgrace upon the rascally Cameron. Having wooed and won young Marshall, she seems by a hasty marriage to have accomplished her desire; yet satisfaction is still far enough from her mind, expanding afresh under the experiences of marriage, when Robert learns at a brawl the truth of his hasty acceptance, and, having fought indeed for the very cause on which her heart is set, leaves her forever. The rest of the story is occupied with Diana's search for her husband, and the quaint story of the child, Return, whose lot it is to bring back his father finally to the longing wife.

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The canvas is full of figures-English soldiery, slave traders, adventurers and half-breeds; it has a dusky richness of color and narrative, and moves at times with an ample sweep like the blowing of a fresh wind over prairies. Its authors are young western women, much of whose already published work has this same amplitude in color and movement.

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H. T. P.

The Princess Passes*

HE many appreciative readers of "The Lightning Conductor," who have been eagerly waiting for another book from Mr. and Mrs. Williamson, will not be disappointed in "The Princess Passes," a second story of delightful travels, made partly by motor and partly on foot.

The heroine of the tale is a girl alive with a true femininity, and a certain independence of spirit that disregards conventionalities. On the eve preceding her marriage she discovers that the would-be husband is in love with her money only. Of course her refusal to marry him follows. To relieve thoughts occasioned by a shattered ideal she plans a tour through Eu

*THE PRINCESS PASSES. By C. N. and A. M. Williamson. Illustrated. Henry Holt & Co.

rope, and to avoid the many inconveniences that would attend a woman traveling alone, masquerades as a boy. In such guise she meets Lord Lane, who is traveling with a like purpose in view, namely, to bury a supposed love, but more properly a wounded vanity, he having been jilted by a calculating London beauty.

Meeting at an old-fashioned inn, the hero, or "Man," and the heroine, or "Boy," compare notes and, finding their intended journeyings lie along similar lines, agree to join forces. There is no lagging by the way. We pass quickly from one town to another, viewing all the picturesque beauty of the mountains and valleys, under sunlight and moonlight, and at the same time. following the charming romance of "Man" and "Boy," delighting in the continuous incident, and ever amused by complications that punctuate the story with irresistible humor.

The disappearance of "Boy," the anxious search by Lord Lane, the surprise of the transformation in a fitting climax, hold and absorb the interest.

Altogether it is a story to delight in, and will also be treasured by a lover of new lands for its valuable detailed descriptions, which at times wax poetical.

A

M. J. GILL.

My Lady Clancarty* TRULY delightful story of the time of King William is Mary Imlay Taylor's "My Lady Clancarty." The quietness and beauty of the grounds at Alethorpe form a fitting background for the opening part of the story, where we are first shown Lady Clancarty in all the beauty of her young womanhood. Married at the age of eleven to Lord Clancarty, then sixteen, and immediately separated from him without having seen or heard of him for years, she is loyal to her husband, and yet dreams of the Prince who is coming, as do all young girls, and hoping that Prince and husband will be one.

Then we see the dream come true, and the man whom she loves proved to be Lord

*MY LADY CLANCARTY. By Mary Imlay Taylor, author of "On the Red Staircase," etc. Illustrated by Alice Barber Stephens. Little, Brown & Co.

taken abroad, and only wakes to consciousness on the death of the chief conspirator to find that he is the presumptive heir to the throne of Budavia. Then he learns to his dismay that he is "wanted" by the United States Government for his crime, and that he has nearly, in consequence of his strange disappearance, alienated the affections of his fiancee.

They meet, however, through the curiously fortunate manner all authors contrive, and it is through the machinations of herself and her father that the hero at length finds himself freed from the mesh of circumstances which surround

him, and the bonds of prospective royalty.

The heir to the throne had been stolen in early childhood, and this lends color to the production of the American who had (as the presumptive heir) been supposedly taken to the United States and there reared as an American.

It is a theme on which many plots have been built, after the manner of "Rupert of Hentsau." There is much sword play, numerous dark plots, with a little rill of a love story twining its way throughout. B. J. ROTART.

The Unwritten Law*

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ANY a sermon has been preached out of church, but few that come closer home and with greater emphasis than "The Unwritten Law." It deals with corruption in high places, oppression in low places, the unbridled lust of man and the pride of life-it deals with facts as such-and presents them in such a way that at times our hearts fail us for "the things that are." Not with the blatant tones of a harsh observer, but with the fear and love of all that is best and good and true does the book come to usand happily, bright, true womanhood and a clean, honorable manhood are held up as the highest goal of attainment.

The story is of New York life, and deals with all kinds and conditions of men-a Judge, a bank president, a railway magnate, a poor engraver, and the children of these, with our "little children of the streets." The reason for the book is found in this prayer of old Silas Adams:

*THE UNWRITTEN LAW. By Arthur Henry. A. S. Barnes & Co.

"Forgive us our trespasses. Forgive us our jails. Forgive us our churches. Forgive us our benevolence and our asylums. Forgive us the feeble charity we offer Thee, and make us mighty to redeem. Amen." R. W. B.

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Langbarrow Hall*

ANGBARROW HALL," by Theodora Wilson Wilson, is a most peculiar story. It is a book with the moral printed opposite the title page, and the burden of the moral is: "Pray that no evil befall any man lest your prayers should be answered." It is the story of Bridget De Renegie's hate for her Cousin Joan, and is a tragedy, the climax being the death of Rene De Renegie, Bridget's brother and Joan's lover.

The story of the childhood of Rene and Joan is fascinating simply because it is at story of childhood, but even here the heaviness of the style hangs like a black shadow, forewarning us of coming events.

Joan is the strongest character, and yet she is not altogether lovable, for there is just a suggestion of something uncanny in her approach to perfection. Bridget is the opposite type, being too wicked to be

true.

Once in awhile Mrs. Wilson has forgotten herself and has written well and almost easily, but otherwise the whole tale is strained and unnatural with the style fittingly full of effort. The story is one that need not have been written, and will do very little good when read.

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The Lodestart

HIS is distinctly a sort of book that belongs on the piazza or the parlor table of a summer boarding house; a sort that one reads without effort, and forgets without sorrow.

One can hardly analyze a plot so tenuous as that on which the book hangs together; it is a mingling of somewhat inconsequential love affairs, the eccentricities of a still agile and superfluously wealthy widower, and a nebulous rivalry between the widower's daughter and a

*LANGBARROW HALL. By Theodora Wilson Wilson. Appleton & Co., New York.

THE LODESTAR. By Sidney R. Kennedy. Illustrated. The Macmillan Co.

a

schoolmate for the hand of an attractive and very much sketched-in popular author. There are automobiles and private cars, in incongruous proximity to the rude. simplicity of a run-down farm and Methodist revival meeting. There are a few "walking" ladies and gentlemen of still more indefinite contours than those of the principals themselves; and the whole story comes to an end rather suddenly with merely the suggestion of a consummation to its main love affair. On the whole, there is no particular reason why one should grieve to forget this story, innocuously agreeable as it proved for the passing of an idle hour. H. T. P.

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The Candidate*

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R. ALTSHELER has given us another newspaper man and another candidate. In "Guthrie of the Times" the newspaper man became the candidate, but in "The Candidate" the newspaper man, Harley, of the "New York Gazette," profoundly admires Mr. Grayson, the coming President, and after falling in love with Mr. Grayson's niece, Sylvia Morgan, proceeds to make that young lady reciprocate the affection, irrespective of the fact that she is already engaged to her old guardian, "King" Plummer. It may be that the Fourth Estate has a different standard in such matters from the average man, but the only flaw in both Guthrie and Harley was the fact that they seemed not to take into

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account the rights of other men where their own personal wishes were concerned.

The fidelity to fact in the whirlwind campaign of Mr. Grayson is rather doubtful, but intensely interesting and dramatic. The story is exciting from start to finish, and if the unexceptional rigors of the tour, the extraordinary vigor of the candidate and the unfailing resources of Harley make the tale at times an improbable one, it is possibly due to the fact that so few of us have been on such a tour.

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Brothers

R. W. B.

HE author has dealt cleverly with a difficult theme. There are two brothers-one handsome, with a brain not quite the calibre expected of him, but who rises to all honors; the other, plain, direct, a "Jack of all trades, master of none," who fails in much he attempts, partly because of an impediment in his speech, partly because of that irony of fate which denies fame and often bare recognition to really brilliant minds.

This puppet of fate furnishes in his pen sermons the open sesame to his more favored brother, who declaims them. There is, too, a maid, winsome, but “whose mind is not so strong as her body," who loves "the Puppet." She marries, however the successful brother, after refusing several other men of rank and wealth. It is not quite a pleasant story, if one reads between the lines.

A History of Ireland+ HE revival of things Celtic is largely responsible for a good deal of the new literature concerning Ireland and its people. As a contribution to Irish historical literature, Mr. John F. Finerty offers this book, neatly bound in two volumes. It is stated that the work is a

*THE CANDIDATE. By Joseph A. Altsheler, author of "Guthrie of the Times," etc. Harper & Bros.

IRELAND. The People's History of Ireland. By John F. Finerty. In two volumes. Dodd, Mead & Co.

B. J. R.