BOOK NOTICES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16591, 14 January 1916, Page 3

BOOK NOTICES.

"Shadows." By H. Graham© Richards. London: Hutchinson and Co. (3s 6d, & 6d.) In the story of " Shadows" we have an excellent description of the lifo of an irresponsible young man of mixed heredity, wiio is swayed now to the right, now to tho loft, by the conflicting elements of birth and surroundings. Offspring of an ill-starred and foolish marriage, ho inherits from his mother and maternal grandfather the hot blood and splendid traditions of many generations of brilliant naval heroes, while irom his own father ho derives the taint of moral cowardice which lacks tho courage to say '"No." Driven by these opposite forces Ronald very nearly sufera moral as well as financial shipwreck. The outbreak of the v:ar, to which Honald feels immediately called, has the effect of arousing in him a sense of the sterner realities of life, and in the hour of danger and distress, when all tho world seeme tumbling to pieces around him, he comes to the oonsciousri&s of his own criminal folly, and in tho long hours of pain and suffering of mind and body, passed in a hospital ward, he finally comes to himself, and to his own better nature. The heroine of this story, Gwaino Brennan, ij a delightful creature, "a white spirit of a girl with the straightest eyes in the world." She is not outwardly beautiful—that is tho prerogative of her elder sister, Hilda—but good all through. She and Ronald are boy and girl sweethearts, and her faithful devotion never wavers. It is indeed almost maternal in its pure passion, and the sense of it accompanies him through his follies and downfall, ready to reoeive him broken and penitent at the last, " a maimed hero" in body but sane of mind. Of oourso new that he is really worthy, he .considers himself unworthy. " You cannot marry me. You must not. I am not worthy." But Gwaino knows better, and, accepting tho sacrifice, which was no sacrifice, and understanding her at last, "ho kisses her lips, eyes, and hair, and faithful little hands," murmuring "I am a great coward, Gwaine, but I cannot let you go. I thought I was beaten, but there is still some fight left in me, and I will fight again and yet again. For I oould not live without you." .

"The Busy Whisper." By Thomas Cobb, London: G. Bell and Sons. (3a 6d, 2s 6d.)

Wo learn from Tennyson, as well as from our own experience, that " whispering tongues can poison truth." The moral of Mr Cobb's new story is on these lines. Mis Honoria Banking sets the ball rolling, and for no very obvious reason —except perhaps to marry off the moonvoriently grown-up daughter of an admirer—makes a good manypeople very uncomfortablo, and is the indirect cause of much unhappjness. The plot of the story is rather uiin,_ but the execution leaves little to be desired. It gives a glimpse of social life and undercurrents, and presents a picture of the kind of thing which goes on around us all the time, and which uppity of ua are too busy to notice.