SHORTER NOTICES.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 61, 18 April 1914, Page 3

SHORTER NOTICES.

In "Dickie Devon" (Methuen and Co.), John Overton, whose excelleut story, "Lynette," may be remembered by some of my readers, gives us a really excellent romance of the time when Cavaliers and Roundheads were struggling for supremacy. The hero, Derrick Devon, a young Cavalier, insults a superior officer, Major Bagot, and is forced by the latter, who is pursuing Devon 's sister with his unwelcome attentions, and who wants to get. the brother out of the way, to become a spy among the Roundheads. In the course of his new career, Dielcie meets, under most romantic circumstances, an acquaintance of his childhood, the pretty Sylvia Heriot. Unfortunately for the hero, a fine town lady, who is in love with his cousiii, Geoffrey Devon, mistakes him for that gentleman, by whom she considers herself to have been badly treated, and Dickie is betrayed by her into a position which nearly costs him his life. Mr Overton is not so cruel, however, as to condemn such a pair of true lovers as Dickie and his faithful Sylvia to permanent unhappiness, and the story ends as all good love stones should. There is a Weymanesque flavour about the story, which, however, runs more crisply and briskly than do the older novelist's stories. Those who remember "Lyuette" will be glad to renew acquaintance with that jolly Irish soldier, Michael Fleming, who is again a prominent figure iu Mr Overton's latest storv.

'' Five Years and a Month,'' by Mrs Morris Wood (Duckworth and Co.; per George Eobertson and Co.), is a long and rather laboured study of feminine temperament. Theodore Reece, the heroine, is the wife of a selfish "waster," a solicitor in a Lancashire town. Reece neglects his wife, who, at the time the story opens, has gradually lost whatever love she had for him. A more than usually gross affront leads her to accept an invitation to visit friends, first in London, next in Normandy, and finally in Paris. Gradually, in her happier environment, the wife comes to recognise that her married life has been something akin to purgatory. Handsome, and charming of manner, she attracts male attention, but, though playing with fire, and indulging in dangerous flirtations, always manages to emerge with honour unscathed. At Paris, however, she fascinates J a very fine fellow, a wealthy American, with whom, oa\

her side, she falls passionately in love. The lover pleads that he may be allowed to "arrange" a divorce, but Theodora, though sorely tempted to take hold of a happiness hitherto denied her, refuses, and returns to England, to a husband who, by this time, is practically ruined, and has sunk deeper and deeper into laziness and vice. The end is pathetic, for the poor woman, driven from home by her husband's callous neglect, catches cold, is struck down by bronchitis, and dies. The author displays considerable ability in describing the pettiness of middle-class society in a provincial town, and the scenes in Normandy and Paris are replete with picturesque local colour. The story has its longueurs, but is worth reading..