SOME RECENT FICTION

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3000, 10 February 1917, Page 13

SOME RECENT FICTION

Tha Park Wall, by Elinor Mordaun? (Cassell and.Co.; per AYhitcombe and Tombs). • ■. ■ Kirs. Morclaunt's latest storv well maintains- tho -already high. standard! se-t in this author's previous books, "Lu of '-the Eangos;"" "The Family," and ''The' Rose of Youth"; "indeed, it is safe to say that few better written novels appeared for. some time past.. The heroine, the younger daugh-ter-of a.highly conventional "county family," falls a viotim to'- the beaux yeux of a selfish and dissipated hut handsome man, much her senior, who is •home for a holiday from an unnamed tropical island (Mauritius, I should guess). Once out in hor new home the young wifo Is not long in discovering her husband's truo character, and eventually, after an outbreak of more than usual brutality oh his part, decides upon flight. Unfortunately, her decision plays right into the liands of •the rascally husband, who by this time has.-tired of his new 'plaything,- and desires to get rid of her. By an unhappy mischance the circumstances of her departure are such as support tho husSan3's plan of obtaining a divorce, .and on arriving in England she is served with the. necessary legal papers. Her .family are (ill horrified! at the .very idea of a divorce, and 1 when the unhappy gTrl 'decideß that she will allow tho case io go by default rather than ruin a man who has qui to innocently befriended lior, she is practically turned adrift.-'' The' story now deals', with the divorced woman's rcsid'onco and work in a London'slum, and with the determination and courago with whioh she manages to retain possession of and support her child. Mrs. Mordannt is hero on somewhat well worked ground, • but her treatment of . ,-a haokneyed mdtif is quite original and. convincing. "Die much-tried wifo oventually finds tho happiness she has well deserved, and an exceptionally interesting story enffs as all readers must have hoped it would.. T can warmly commend Mrs. Mordaunt's oxcellent novel. Rose Cottlngham Married, by Netta. Syrett (T. Fisher TJnwin) is a sequel to tho same author's cleveT story,. "Tho Victoriaiiß," although it cau be rea'd quite' apart from its predecessor. The heroine, who has written a couplo of fairly successful novels, marries'.a young labour leader, a. man who is ' lialf _ sincere, half selfish and! self-ttaludod in Ins espousal of advanced political principles. After a, time it is his insincerity which comes uppermost", and it is tho wifo' who saves him from being bought over by the (of course}" wicked capitalistic party b.v.tho offer'of a highly remunerative editorship. The happiness of the curiously matched pair ebbs and flows,' but the Blory ends with" a complote reconciliation,. brought about by tho death of tlioir only son at the front. -As in. "The Victorians," 'Miss Syrett gives us somo skilful charactor drawing, and her cMSTogue is always bright and convincing. . ' The Tower Wall. By "Alice Grant Bosnian (Ilodder and Houghton). Mrs. Bosman, who is, I understand, an Adelaide lady, gives us some lively, and agreeable pictures of "English life as-seen by her heroine, the daughter of a South Australian barrister and ex-Cabinet Minister. She becomes tho secretary and protegee of an elderly English lady, an author of considerable reputation,' who, as a matter of fact, is her real mother. The story soon rosolves itself into an analysis of tho dilemma in .which this much-suf-fering woman is placed. As a young wifo she had wearied of her selfish, responsibility-shirking husband, and had gono away on a health trip to .the Continent, accompanied by an invalid friend. The latter dies in a littlo out-of-the-way French town, and a mistake is made by the authorities in registering tho name-nf-the defuuet, whereupon the young wife takes tho dead woman's name. Hor husband, -behoving hor dead, emigrates to Australia and marries again, taking with him his infant daughter, who is brought up to believe the second wile her mother. When the heroino is about -to marry, her supposed Australian mother decides upon coming to England for tho ceremony. What effect, this has upon tho rc;\l mother T. must not tell, hut suffice\ it to snv that 'the latter Droves herself capable of a truly heroic self-sac-rifice. Apart from tho somewhat stagey French episode the story is convincing, and in .her study of the muchharassed woman, who is denied the luinniness of claiming as her own child tho daughter whom she has learnt to lovo so well, Mrs. Eosman achieves a decided success. "Given in Marriage," by B. M. Croker (Hutchinson and Co., per Whitcombo and Tomlis). Tho latest of Mrs. Croker's pleasantly written stories .of Anglo-Indian life lias for its heroine a young lady who, at seventeen, is left, an orphan, and is married, in namo only, to a young English officer whose life the girl's father had saved at tho oxpenso of his own. Married at almost a day's notice tho bride repents with a quite astonishing promptitude, for she leaves her husband on her very wedding day and sails (or England. Befriended by kindly relations, she keeps her marriage a swret., and is duly made love to by nioro than one eligible parti ; In tho long run, sho falls in lovo with her own bus- J

band, who has returned from India, but a misunderstanding occurs and tho husband returns to India, to bo wounded in a froutier fight. Needless to say, however, tho story cuds as all _ good sontimontal readers' would have it do. "For Satan Finds," by Charlotte Mansfield (Holden and Hardingham, per Whitcombe and Tombs). A South African story,_ with a young wife, fresh from an English rectory, as heroine, a wife whoso well meaning and affectionate husband is so wrapped up in his farm, situated in an. isolated district in tho Free State, that he Tails to perceive that his wife is bored to death by the strangoness and dullnoss of lier new environment. A somewhat vulgar South African variant of the gay Lothario typo first amuses and tHen flirts with the wifo, whilst on his side the husband is beguiled by a lady with n decidedly lurid past into philandering, and very nearly into something worse than more philandering. The young oouplo set out for England for a holiday, and on thn voyage a tragedy occurs which brings them together again and proves to each that laarital vows are well worth remembering—and respecting. • Tho story is brightly written and very readable.