⁂ In "The Knightly Years" the author of "The Magada" takes us back once more to the Canary Islands in the days of Isabella the Catholic. The tale deals with the aftermath of conquests, when "the first use the islanders made of their newly-acquired moral code was to apply it to their rulers." The hero of the story is the body-servant of the profligate Governor of Gomera, whose love affairs become painfully involved with those of his master. In the course of his many adventures we come across Queen Isabella herself, the woman to whom every man was loyal save her own husband; and countless Spanish worthies, seamen, soldiers, governors and priests, all real men, the makers of Empire four hundred years ago. The book abounds in quaint sayings both of Spaniard and native, while the love-making of the simple young hero and his child-wife weaves a pretty thread of romance through the stirring tale of adventure.
BY ALLEN ARNOT.
THE DEMPSEY DIAMONDS; A Novel. Crown 8vo. 6/-
⁂ his is the story of the secret transference of a fortune; and the scene is laid mainly in two old houses in two Scottish Villages, one on the east coast, one buried in midland woods. The tale is of the old slow days of twenty years ago before the tyranny of speed began, but it is swayed throughout and borne to its close by the same swift passions that sway the stories of men and women to-day, and will sway them till the end of time.
BY H. F. PREYOST BATTERSBY.
THE SILENCE OF MEN. Crown 8vo. 6/-
⁂ Lynne is a girl who shows a strong liking for a change of surname. Indeed, it is not always certain by what name she has a right to be called. March, a young civilian of great promise, meets her on the boat going out to India, and offers her the hospitality of his house, which is kept by an unmarried sister. March and Lynne become married—and secretly so at Lynne's express wish. After a brief time she bolts to England with Lord Rupert Dorrington, an A.D.C., and cables that she has married him. While on leave March comes across her at a fashionable ball in London. Meanwhile he has fallen in love with another girl, but Lynne declares that if he marries her she will cry the true facts from the housetops.
By a cunning arrangement of circumstance the reader is made aware of the fact that March's marriage has been all along invalid, which of course puts a different complexion upon Lynne's matrimonial position.
Mr. Battersby handles the story in a very masterful way, and his descriptions of Indian scenery and social life in London show the quality of personal observation.