BOOK NOTICES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14086, 14 December 1907, Page 5

BOOK NOTICES

"The Angel of Forgiveness." By Rosa, Nouchctto Carey. London: MacmiHaii and (Jo. Diincdin: J. Braithwaite. (Os 6d, 2s 6d.) Miss Carey's fluent pen lias not lost the jwwer of writing fresh and wholesome fiction j and wo consider that her latest book ifi fully up I" Iho standard of extellency to which ehe has accustomed her waders. The plot is distinctly original and attractive, ant) tho art which can l'ivct. attention on the love story of an elderly, married coujvle is of lio mean quality, hut shows very fine appreciation of all that makes for true romance. This is the story of a daughter's brave and persistent endeavour to obtain a wife's forgivencw of a wrong don% to her by her husband, because of which she has lived apart from him for years. Githa. Darnell herself tells the talc of liow, under the care of her father and a faithful iiuicc, she passes a happy childhood in a London home. Xo one ever speaks of her mother, and the child naturally

supposes that she is dead. Twice a year r Githii. is sent to visit a. certain Cousin Yvonne, " a beautiful, grey-haired, but still young lady," who lives at some distance in the country, for w'hom the girl has a great affection, a-nd whose house is her second home. Ott her seventeenth birthday Githa learns that "Cousin Yvonne" is her mother. She learns, too, that her idolised father ,has been guilty of'some fault which has driven his wife from his side, and wrecked both their lives. With fine loyalty and devotion Githa refuses to be told what this fault N is. Whatever ilfi nature her father has repented, and it is now at an end, completely wiped out and forgiven. But that ifi not the opinion held by the injured wife, who, with all' her niany virtues, cannot forgive. The mother's coldness and prido hurt the sensitive girl, who sees that .her parents still love each other in 6pite of their long separation. It seems to her an easy and a. simple thing to bring them together, and her resolution is'

strengthened by a. dream of "The Angel of Forgiveness- who dwells in the laDd of peace, where our Lord loves to walk in

the cool of the evening . . . among those who dwell in eternal sunshine, having the secret of everlasting peace, for in their carllfly days they loved much and showed mercy 'on the unmerciful." Gitlia's self-imposed task proves a hard one, and her mental anxiety and worry ■prey on her delicate and sensitive body. Yvonne loves her child, but loves her own will still better.' "Come Lack," entreats tho child; but the mother's heart is adamant. Phillip Darnell has accented her decision long yeans before and cannot protest, and tho position seems hopeless It is only when tho girl i 6 stricken down by fever, and tho parents fear that their child is-passing from them, that Yvonne's pride gives way, a reconciliation is effected, afld GitJia's heart's desiro is fulfilled. The girl's own romance is not neglected, but her ideal parson is a little "too good," and too obviously a "woman's man." To niarry a girl of 17 to a grey-haired widower seems to us little short of a, crime, but the.widower liae two ddiglitfnl " lieavcoly-mindod " twins, whose sayings and doings are very funny, and whose devotion to " Girlie" proves an irresistible attraction to that baby-loving young person. In domestic fiction, and in depicting scenes of domestic happiness amid the quiet charm of wellordered middjoclase homos, Miss Carey has few equals, and "The Angel of Forgiveness " is quite one of her beet efforts on these lines.

Under Xorth Star and Southern Cross." By Francis Sinclair. London : Sampson Low, Marston, awl Co. Dunedin; J. Uraitliwaite. (Cloth, gilt, 65.) Half a dozen stories of fine workmanship, and much novelty and freshness recall 'Mr Sinclair's previous volume, " WJiere the Sun Sote." He is a man of travel in tho by-ways of the world, ,i Ulan who socks experience and out-of-the-way knowledge; he- has the poetic sense and the delicate appreciation of values which belongo-to- and in each of the present stories he creates, by means of prologue or introduction, just thai atmosphere. wJiich is necessary to bring out the weird, uncanny, or mystical touch which is the keynote of the whole. Ho informs us in his preface that "Tho men and women introduced into these pages, and the incidents recorded, are not altogether fleeting sliadowa of tho imagination : the people portrayed really existed, and tho event* took place almost exactly m they are set forth." And there is an aar of walism in all the tales—except the last.—which, bears out this statement. ' I lie Haunted Ship" i 8 a creepy story of a wrecked whaler frozen on to an iceberg in the Antarctic Ocean, with a crew of dead men in the hold, and a tow of phantoms "leaning over the poop lron-rading, and looking listlessly over tho ship'g side". a Ivw of which appear and disappear, and the sight of whom strikes such terror into the stalwart eailors who have! been told off to examine tho wreck that two only will venture.on deck, one of whom tells tho fitory, and tho other dies of the fri«ht Tho Marooned Maiden's Secret" is "the yarn of a lovely sub-tropical island, of a mysterious wreck, a buried treasure, and' .a child guardian. In "Margarita of Onzzly Ginyon " tho scene changes to the west coast of North America, and deals with a sudden passion of a jealous halfSpamsli girl and a life-long repentance. KHhfuMo Dea4.h" is a dog story of the far Wth-of an outermost station of the Hudson's Bay Company, and of two can.no friends who, when : their master fell dead, preferred to guard his bodv rather than seek safety with the rest o'f the voyageur train. "Irene Middleton" is an interesting study in psychology and mental dwase. And "Tho Lost Oasis of U iJnrag is as creepy a yarn of tho wild superstitions of the desert as ever mado the hair slowly rise on the wellcropped head of .a civilised man, who believes m ,i natural explanation of every phenomenon, but finds that theories some-1 times fni! when confronted with facts since there are still more things m i lcaven and earth than can bo explained awav bv the materia! philosopher. We commend Air bmclairs book to all readers- the fitye and matter aro full of distinction and the stories are told with a ourt charm which is » delightful contrast to the ordmary breathless, up-to-date method. y

The Bay of Lih.es." By Paul Wainemn. London: Methuen and Co. Dunwin: i WlntcDinbe and Toinfa. 3s 6d, *j$ 6d.) '

. Jll;! «!»« •■lUtad.ioii of this "Romance irom i inland" urtliat it takes tho reader into a now i.uxl an d surrounds him irith u. omonmeni. Cm is apt to think tnav Jio ivwdoiri of great spaces is no louiTtr u, l>f._foand in Europe, but Mr Paul Wiiiiiw'iiin shows us that we are wronc awJ that, among the Finnish lakes and lowlands arc great wind-swept spaces and for-jst*. to which -'the carefully jirwapvcd roiatos in England seem " like J,?-"™? iiliwl with a handful of tamo bira* fattened .ii, captivity, and carefully ««iU-h«i by lynx-eved keepers until the auspicious day arrived, when they are driven out of their cap; and duly sliot in rotation-by tl:e waiting jfuns." Viv Jawl 13 also a land of flowers—the ]\\a<x, Muso white phiifics fill the <vhol<; land with fragrance _ and whw interlaced bough,-, fonn an impenetrable sliield round r.iiK hisiosu- mansion vriicre love and dwtli play the drama of lifo, are .in intgjrra! part in the , gt-orv: so also are the Ftks-of-tho-valltjv. whioli rarpev (he !v<r(i"> "island of dwauis." The story Sh» vnshrincd is witi» melancholy, a folly Joiuf wpenteit.'and a uh> law love; bat Hip melancholy sbsihr iiLsep-irablo fiwm northern lands, where the memory of tits loug irint<?r always underlies ihe brief •.glnrr.of suinnu-i-: and the tm«wly ot Ihe niight-havp-lk'fii is always most insisteut jfi the quiet secluded lives that have few iutenste and a narrow outlook. So the rforr (if the kih'os of Syrenvifc ajid tlie msmniKt visiioj- who trouble their peace «uwai6'it<»!{ in twine form or other in umiiv u. lonely I'.amlet and tip country fcm.'. Mr Wainranan has a delicate touch •tnd k mv pootic instinct- which enables lam to kit the /iglii thing ;uid to suggest far moro lhaii ho says. His work is fibe a deKcaie war/s'-coloui , , full of aimosend baif iinta, ft ffw.ls. Dwk-

ground with storm-laiden clourls, and it group of illusive lromsuis, hulf-iigUl, li;«Jfshaow, in (lie foreground.

" Conspirator.?." By Phillips Oppenheim. London: Wa,rd, Lock, and Co. Dunedin: J. Uraithwaite. (Illustrated;* 3s 6(1, 2s 6d.)

A fascinating medley of romance and mystery, in which an uncrowned queen and her two ibvotcd s,chnoli'ellowe play a conspicuous part. A murder takes plate i.i tho first chapter, which is not elucidated until the last: almost c.vevv one of the dramatis personal in turn being suspected of the crime, while the most transpuivnUy innocent pi'ison is the real culprit. We feel sure that a very large number oft people will read " Conspirator*" with breathless interest, and consider it as (jowl as anything that Mr Phillips Oppenhcim has ever written, and that is saving a great deal. "A Uirl from America." Jjy L. T. "Moade. London: W. and j". Chambers. (Cloth; gilt; illustrated; <k) This story of. the young duuditev. of an American multi-millionaire, who was so tired of having ber own way in everything that she voluntarily put herself under hard_ discipline, is exceedingly well told, and is quite the best thing in'ite way that Mre L. T. Me.ide has done, lor there is in it an almost total absence of the forced situations to which we have often called attention in books of this tvne, where the moral lesron is didactically taught and the "good" people are simply detestable. In "Tho Girl from America" tho psychological situation is admirably conceived and portrayed. The natural revulsion against convention of a stron£, primative. unspoiled nature is very well told, and though some of Hie scenes arc a little exaggerated, they are not really impossible; the two English girls—Patty and Curly—axe well contrasted with their American friends, so also are contrasted the "'red gold and the yellow gold," the gold with love -u it and the gold without. Four teachers show the American heiress lour ways of spending her father's money, and she is wise enough to choose the way of love. The lesson of the book is excellent, and it is admirably told; The illustrations and general get up are .unexceptionable.