According to the publishers' note Mr, (or Miss) L. G. Moberly—one inclines to the latter—has already written some thirty-eight other! novels. No doubt the author has hig established public, "who. will enjoy this book as much as his previous works, for it is agreeably written and easy to read, but judged what disappointed at its lack of depth.
In one of his stories O. Henry remarks that there are only four: original plots in the world, and the Cinderella theme is certainly one of. these. At the beginning of this book Martin Damersley is a middle-aged clerk living in an uninteresting suburb with his family, consisting of his wife, their four grown-up children, and his sister, who tells the story. By the sudden death of three persons in a railway accident, Martin becomes the Earl of Gledworth, with broad acres and' an immense income. The plot is connected with the reaction of the various members of the family to their changed environment; the sturdier ones rise superior to it, while the weaker ones get into trouble and have to be helped out, bat, in spite of a rival claimant, "Kind. hearts are more than coronets," and everyone is happy in the end, except the wicked dowager who is duly discomforted.
For an idle holiday on a tiresome Journey the book will provide pleasant reading, and, if the story is not very absorbing, at any rate it is so attractively written that the interest is nicely sustained to the the story: shall be, of at least. appear to be, scientifically possible, however improbable, and not. just a product of the author's imagina-
Most people's knowledge of -the subject of hypnotism is necessarily slight, and the reviewer is certainly not going to hazard an opinion upon whether the events narrated by Mr. Vivian come within the limits of actual possibility, but, at fany rate, while one is reading' his tale, they seem feasible, and the faction moves too quickly' for much From the moment when Dick Kaye, at the request of Theresa Derwent, undertakes to unravel the secret of Ward Crowden's influence over her father, until he nccom-Plisheg his. mission, he encounters full quota of danger and excite-bowden would hardly have omitted to provide against such a simple plan ax sufficed to him, but nearly every book kind is faced with a similar difficulty, which is rarely entirely satisfactorily surmounted, Altogether Mr. Vivian has given lus a thoroughly readable tale which [provides "pleasant variation from everyday fiction—3.8.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.