LITERATURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3355, 3 July 1918, Page 58

LITERATURE.

BOOK NOTICES. "An Anzac's Bride." By Margaret Gibbons (Mrs Patrick Mac Gill). London:' Herbert Jenkins. (Cloth: 55.) This is a most sensational and exciting story. It is difficult to believe that so many and such extraordinary misadventures could occur in about tour months to a little middle-class English girl in England, at the present( time: but, once give yourself into the hands of Mrs Patrick iv±acGill, and these follow each other quite automatically. This pretty little -.girl of 19, with flaming red hair and a paie face, is married alter less than a month's acquaintance to the Anzac, Richard Hayden. Heather was playing the violin in a restaurant when he first saw her, and he immediately obtained an introduction, and fell in love on the spot. The girl has no living relatives, except a younger, crippled sister, whom she is trying to support, and for whore sake she does some verv foolish things. Alter a hasty marriage and a few days' honeymoon, the happy pail 1 go to Southampton to see Dick off. Here they j encounter Douglass Farrell, a young man whom Heather knew when a child, and has since lost sight of. While Dick goes to purchase a farewell present for his bride Farrell induces her to meet him "under the sea wall." Here he makes violent love, kisses her until she almost faints, and Dick finds them "in each other's, arms." He waits for no further evidence, but, having Knocked Farrell senseless, departs without farewell. The poor little bride of three days returns to London by the late express. At the last moment Farrell, with his face bandaged, enters the oarriage. He renews his unwelcome advances. They struggle together, and Heather is thrown, or falls, out of the unlocked door. Farrell is for the moment shocked, thinking himself a murderer, but Heather in some mysterious way catches the door-handle of the next carriage, to which she holds on until rescued by an escaped convict who was hiding under the seat. In her gratitude for this timely intervention Heather assists the convict to escape, gets out of the train with him, and accompanies him to the house of a twen-tieth-century witch, who makes some marvellous astrological predictions. She then motors the convict to the station, and herself returns to London. Soon after she hears of the death of her husband "somewhere in France." To save her sister from starvation she plays the violin in the street. The manager of a music hall thinks so well of her performance that he invites her to "do a turn." The reappearance of Farrell causes her to lose this chance by fainting on the stage. We now learn the cause of Farrell's persecution of the poor girl. His father, knowing his son's evil disposition, and thinking that a good wife might be his salvation, has left a fortune of £30,000 to be paid to him on his marriage to Heather "before his thirtieth year"; otherwise the money is to go to Heather herself. . This period has now nearly elapsed. He tries many means to get the girl. Once he pretends to be dying, and sets up a fine scene with a " faked " doctor and parson, who pathetically entreat her to give him the right to " call her wife if only for an hour " that he may leave her all his money. Then she is kidnapped and carried to a lonely old "stone house" on Dartmoor and put in charge of a semi-lunatic. From this placo she escapes by' a lucky chance, has a severe illness, and loses her memory. She is befriended by a little actress, shoots a man, but does not kill him, takes refuge in a convent, plays to some wounded soldiers in a hospital, where she is seen and recognised by her husband, who is, of course," not dead, and the story ends with their happy reunion and departure for New Zealand.

" Mulberry Springs." By Margaret Storrs Turner. London: T. Fisher Unwin. ("First Novel Library"; 55.) Mulberry Springs is a spa in the Midlands. The healing quality of its waters was first discovered by its good effects on the cattle of the neighbouring peasantry. Its fame spread, and a little spa sprang

into life. A few years passed and it was forgotten. Then after some years Dr Athelstan Bolt read in an old guide book, of " the Alum Well in the grounds of Mulberry Hall." He saw his chance and took it. The little spa soon became a~ moclern health resort, and Dr Bolt saw a fortune before him in the near future. Among the many guests of the first season was Marie-Louise Hyrst, daughter of a poet-errant, an irresponsible, erratic, restless being, the passionate lover of many women, who acknowledged no law but that of his own will and pleasure. Marie- ' Louise is his only child, her mother long dead. She has been educated in a convent, and her father meets her in Paris with the avowed intention of taking her to England and making a splash in London society. In Paris he hears of serious money losses, and immediately abandons his daughter, leaving her without money or friends. After some minor adventures the girl makes her way to Mulberry • Springs, and throws herself on the sympathies of Dr Bolt, an old school friend of her father's. The doctor is sorry, for she i 3 indeed a fascinating and delightful young person, full of high spirits and tho joy of life, but almost as unpractical and emotional as her father. Bolt suggests that Marie-Louise should spend the season. at the SDa and act as unofficial leader of the revels, "to keep all tho patients amused and contented." This exactly suits the young lady, a,nd most of the remainder of the book is taken up with the daily doings, small adventures, and smart character-sketches of the patients and personnel of the establishment. In order to make Marie-Louise more efficient she is induced to take brevet rank as Mrs Hillyer, Mr Hillyer being an unknown quantity. At first all goes well. Mrs Hillyer soon makes herself attractive and useful; then people begin to wonder who she is, and a most absurd report becomes current that she is a Serbian Princess in disguise. Complications arise thick and fast. A rejected suitor makes himself verv busy, first in endeavouring to trace the rumour, hoping that it will give him a hold over the girl, and then using it to break off her engagement with a man whom she really 10ve3. Of course, Marie-Louise knows nothing of the rumour, nor why some people make a fuss of her, and darkly hint at a delightful mystery. Her life now becomes a game of cross purposes, a perfect comedy of errors, leading to a break with Mulberry Springs and a series of adventures in the Balkans, where the heroine nearly makes a marriage of convenience, but is saved at the last moment by the oppor r tune reappearance of her true lover> who has had time to discover his mistake in listening to the tongue of slander, and condemning unheard the woman whom his instincts told him to trust and cherish. "Mulberry Springs" is a bright little story, full of smart conversations and good character sketches. Life at the spa is admirably drawn, with a strong sense of humour and not a little genuine fun. The rise and spread of baseless rumour, the danger of acting on impulse, and the condign punishment that should ever take all, mischief-makers are well shown. As a first novel it is full of promise, and should meap' the addition of another quiet humorist to the ranks of English fiction.