ory, and this sort of book is
never without its attraction. The present volume, chastely bound in
green appropriately virginal, recounts the growth of a young girl
married to a more or less successful author. Zoe Baskerville, who on
one page lets somebody call her Virginia (a lapse not making for
conviction), tells in the first person her laudable efforts to develop
an ego in the face of a husband who has enough of it for ten. His
selfish absorption in his own moods and the conditions suitable to his
own labours not unnaturally create in Zoe a feeling of thwarted
ambition, which results in a watered, girlish, form of cynicism about
Man and Woman. This, however, passes off in the last chapter, where
for some reason not easy of access to the mere reader Zoe suddenly
sloughs her despondency and bursts into an exultant Credo: 'I believe
that Life, all in all, is the most splendid gift a kind God could give
to his children. I believe that Man'--and so on for the last four
pages.

"It will be seen that subtlety and cohesion are not the strongest
points in these confessions, which we hope we have taken seriously
enough. About their popularity there can be no doubt. The book
possesses pathos, humour, freshness; a mixture beyond failing; and
moreover, impinges on life, married life, at moments with a frankness
more essentially French than English. This fact may induce those still
in Zoe's earlier mood of cynicism to suspicion a male, Fleet Street,
author: but for our part, remembering the naivete of female Youth and
that incriminating name Virginia, we are quite ready to accept the
volume's authenticity, if we misdoubt somewhat The End's sincerity.

"Taken thus, as a real document, the book has a persuasive charm.
Pathetic little Zoe is a figure as real as her selfish husband, who
emerges in some way as less great than has been actually stated.
(Perhaps we were wrong in denying the book any subtlety.) We can
foresee a long and lucrative discussion as to the Author's identity.
For our part, we make a gift of the discovered clue 'Virginia,' and
shall wait patiently until the publisher, as a good man and true, duly
announces the authorship before issuing a cheap edition. Till that day
we shall hope to live our lives in much the same round as before."

Helena stared so long at the narrow slip, obviously deep in thought,
that Geoffrey Alison found his anxiety turn to a nervous guilt.

Of course, he told himself, he kn