LATEST FICTION

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 103, 2 May 1914, Page 13

LATEST FICTION

"The Terms of Surrender." By Louis' Tracy, author of "Rainbow Island," "The Wheel of Fortune," etc. London : Caasell and Co., Ltd. In this book the author tells the life story of John Darien Power, an English mining engineer, who, when we make his acquaintance, is engaged on development work in the Colorado and Californian fields. Returning to the mining township of Bison, near Denver, after a temporary absence, he finds that Nancy Willard, the girl he, loves, has been trapped into a marriage with his capitalist employer, Hugh Marten. While watching unseen the bridal proI cession, Power is overwhelmed by a fall of earth, which breaks his leg and at the- same time discloses a veih of ore which lands him on the road to wealth, n Meantime Nancy's love for Power is not diminished by /a distasteful marriage, but rather stiniulated, so that when the pair met again, _ after two or three years' interval, it is she who takes the first step in defiance of social conventions. Their dream of happiness is ! short-lived; Nancy, fearing for her lover's life, leaves him, and Power drifts into the wilderness for seven years, to find on regaining civilisation that she baa died t leaving him a charge, in son-.'

nection with her child. This charge he fulfils, after a. dramatic encounter with his old enemy, Marten. There are some curious ethical problems raised by the story, and it may be doubted whether any of the chief characters will command the unqualified sympathy of the reader. Usually a novelist makes a wife in Nancy's position bear her cross of sorrow in silence, until an accident in the hunting field or some other misadventure removes tfie obstacle to a happy union. But perhaps it is hardly fair to quarrel with the author for departing from the beaten track, especially as it enables him to introduce us to a variety of personages in many lands. Mr. Tracy has travelled so extensively that he is able to give local colour to almost any scene he illustrates. He seems equally j familiar with the wild society of the miners of the Rockies, the fashionable dwellers at the Rhode Island seaside resort, and the county squires of ' Devon; while his sketches of the scenery of each place are drawn .with the pen | of an artist. "The Waters of Lethe." By Dorothea [ Gerard (Madame Longard de Longgarde). London: Stanley Paul. This writer has now a fairly large out. put to her credit. She tells in "The Waters of Lethe" how the devotion of Viktor Vogler^to his brother Max was put to the test, and how it stood the strain. The scene is la\d partly in Vienna and partly in England. Dorothea Gerard writes intimately of penury even in the gay and brilliant Vienna; and of London life she gives an attractive, if somewhat realistic, picture. Her character-drawing makes some demand upon the reader's credulity. The "bad man " of the story, one Beesley, is quite ill-drawn. The book reads well, however, and will be much enjoyed by the fireside on a rough night, or in bed on a wet Sunday morning. It holds the reader's interest from beginning to end. "It Happened in Egypt." By C. N. | and A. M. Williamson. London: Methuen and Co. 1 The collaboration of Mrs. Williamson with her husband. Mr. C. N. Williamson, has resulted m many charming and readable works, especially of interest to those who have, not had the opportunity to travel. Their, travels have taken them through many lands, and their works invariably combine the human interest with matters of educational value and interest. Their latest effort at collaboration has resulted in a volume entitled "It Happened in Egypt." This book tells, in the delightful manner of the authors, a story of absorbing interest for travellers in Egypt, and for home dwellers, too. A young English diplomatist finds himself compelled by an unusual combination of circumstances i-o become the temporary conductor of a party of tourists cruising on the Mediterranean and seeing Egypt. His strange new duties plunge him into the midst of adventures, both comic and serious. He composes quarrels, intervenes in love affairs, baffles the agent of a secret society," conducts his charges successfully up the Nile to Khartoum, and in the end finds love and treasure both for himself and a faithful friend.