SOME RECENT FICTION.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1734, 26 April 1913, Page 9

SOME RECENT FICTION.

THE MYSTERIOUS MONSIEUR DUMONT. John Murray rarely publishes a poor novel; indeed, ono of thoso recently received from this firm, Mrs. Edge's "Through tho Cloudy Porch," is so good that I hold it over until I have tuoro space to do such an excellent story full justico. Meanwhile, I can recommend "Tho Mysterious Mr. Dumont," by Frederick Arthur (John Murray; per Whitcombj and Tombs), as a cowl workmanlike novel, dealing with the famous rising of tho loyalists in La Vendee, tho Carrier horrors at Nantes, and the earlier Napoleonic campaigns. Monsier Dumont, the gallant adventurer and elover political spy, is, in reality, a woman, otherwise Madeleine do Saint Iviere, but tho secret of tho <lual personality is well kept, and although I refuso to believe that "Monsieur Dumont's" sex would not h'avo been discovered long before it was, I must confess that Mr. Arthur exhibits great, ingenuity in disguising the truth until almost tho very last chapter of his well-written and exciting romance. "ABBOT'S MOAT." Florence Warden does not cater for the highly intellectual public, which does not as a I'ulo caro for mysterious crimes, but nevertheless thero is a big public which finds joy exceeding in such stories as Miss Warden's "Abbot's Moat" (George Bell and Sons; per Whitcombe and Tombs') by no means a bad specimen of its own particular class of ■ fiction. A pretty and innocent young lady, whose mother has given her daughter a stepfather, who is a member of a gang of international thieves, is suspected of stealing diamond pendants and other valuables from the homo of a wealthy baronet. Miss Warden has concocted a very ingenious plot, and works it out very cleverly to an. unexpected, but highly satisfactory, conclusion. "BARRIERS." In "Barriers," by tho Hon. Mrs. Julian Byng (George Belt and Sons; per Whitcombe and Tombs), wo have that now venerable subject, tho love of a crippled man, soured by his misfortune and seeking consolation in tho lovo of a young and pretty woman. It is hard on Lord Southmiuster that his scampish and handsome cousiu, Captain Everest, acts so treacherously and behaves so abominably,' to both his cousin and to tho girl, but the wicked .Tim is conveniently killed by a "Fuzzy. Wuzzy," and the woman lie has so cruelly seduced finds refugo at last in tho arms of tho still loving and muchforgiving cripple. Some of tho minor characters in this book, especially a kindhearted, though sharp-tongued, old maid, axe very well drawn. Readable. "THE CAGE UNBARRED" • "The Cage Unbarred," by Mts. Gortio Do St. Westworth-James (George Bell and Sons; peivWhitecombo and Tombs), is tho story of a woman who was dull, Camilla M'Chtre. The lady in question was certainly not worth her. husband's sclfsaerilice in arranging tho- divorce which freed her, and when, in tho end, after philandering with a soeicly journalist, a most woful cad, to whoso blatant, vulgarity the author seems to be curiously blind, she returns to lnibby, she certainly does not deserve to bo taken back into the so-called "cage," from which she had once desired to escape.

[Reviews of Mrs. Humphrey Ward's "The Mating of Lydia" and other novels are held over until next Saturday wcek-l