"THE MILKY WAY."

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2156, 23 May 1914, Page 9

"THE MILKY WAY."

"The Milky Way" (William Heine-" maun, per lioorgc Robertson's) is, I should say, the iirst novel of a. lady author. It is the latest addition to the now long list of novels in which the delights of the simple life and a «mdnide Bolioiniumsm aro extolled. It has both humour and pathos, and some of its' episodes aro described in a. vein of gay philosophy which is most enjoyable, as are many purely humorous touches, The heroine is a young art student, who, stranded in a little. Cornish seaport town, makes her Way to London on a tramp steamer, where she meets and "chums up" with an equally impoverished young journalist, who plays tho flute, and is as happily irresponsible as herself. Tho further adventures of the pair, together with an amusing little child whom tho penniless heroine courageously adopts, are set forth in a highly entertaining way. Eventually tho light-hearted Viva and Iter faithful fetor "strike oil" In tho shape of a commission to write and illustrate a book on tho old Provencal cities, and the scene then changes to Southern France, where their experiences are fully' as droll as aro those they have met with on tho "Milky Way"'of ■ romance, as they followed it along English country roads. Wedding bells, of course,. in the last chapter, A very jolly book, although I fear that in actual everyday life the gay-hearted hero and heroine might have found fortune much less kind.

SHORTER NOTJSES, "In tho Time of Roses," by Dolf Wyllardc (George Bell and Sons; per Whitconibo and Tombs) givws many interesting pictures of West Indian life, the hero, a young Englishman «f good family, taking over a neglected plan* tuttoti, having, through a certain will having disappeared, been deprived of English estates of great value, to which he. had considered himself the . heir. Bigby Harroi's experiences on the lovely island of Alousie are complicated by the somewhat tempestuously-ex-pressed affection which a French crc-010 girl showers upon him, bat, returning to England, he marries his cousin Barbara. A cyclouo destroys tho Alousio homestead, the missing will being discovered by the faithful credo girl, who, however, loses her life in the securing of it. Dolf Wyllarde has writ-ton a wholesome, interesting, and very readable story.' , '

"Ineffectual Fires," by B. M. Smith Daintier (Melrose; per George Robert-' son) is a pondcrously-writton and unconvincing story of flic disillusions of a young man who inherits a taste for art from liis Italian mother, and is ambitious of becoming a great pointer. The scene is laid partly in Norfolk and partly in Florence, with an' interlude in London —the London of Sir Joshua lieytickis's day. It, is a somewhat painful story, for Benediet Shaft', who is very badly treated by_ Dame Fortune, never realises his ambition, and dies a miserable death in Florence,. where, rejected by an English girl ho lias long and cleavly loved, lie marries the, termagant daughter of a rascally Italian Jew.

"Through Other Eyes," by Amy M'Larcn (John Murray; per AVhitcombe ■and Tombs),' is'a slight bat prettily-told story of English country life, by the mithor'of tlwt excellent" novel, "With the.Merry Austrian's." Miss M'Larcn introduces vis to some- very pleasant young people, who both speak and act with a- cheerful disregard for conventionalities. There is a good angel in tho story, a crippled young woman, Miss Sunshine, who lives with a delightful old rustie'.ns her housekeeper, in a little cottage on the edge of a great testate. ■ A brusque but good-hearted squire, and his wcli-ine-aning, birt., for a time, 'wither cruelly misunderstood wife, are''also excellent, characters. The story lacks, a,strong motif, is pos-sr-ssed of a simple, charm "of its own which is decidedly fascinating.