This is the story of a partie carrée, two men and two women (one of each is American, the other English), the threads of whose lives become interwoven, owing to a chance meeting in an hotel. How will they pair off? This is the problem: now one solution seems inevitable, now another. As the plot develops two of the dramatis personæ stand revealed as irredeemably ordinary, weak, egoistic; two as self-reliant, noble, and capable of clear-eyed self-sacrifice. Ultimately the determining factor is character, which proves stronger than the chains of circumstance. It is comedy, but serious comedy, and the situations towards the close have a poignancy of which Miss Sedgwick alone possesses the secret.
AN EXTREMELY INTERESTING NOVEL
BY A NEW AUTHOR.
SILVERWOOL.
A Tale of the North Country Fells.
By EMILY JENKINSON.
Crown 8vo., cloth. 6s.
Every page of this powerful and original novel is fragrant with the fresh mountain air of the Fells. What Thomas Hardy has done for the people of Wessex, Miss Jenkinson aims with considerable success at doing for the Northern Dalesmen. ‘Silverwool’ is a prize ram, and the action of the story to some extent centres round his fortunes in the show-ground, affording the author scope for some very interesting studies of country life and character. The situations are excellent, the characters well-drawn, and the style literary and charming.
A STEPSON OF THE SOIL.
By MARY J. H. SKRINE.