e of
the word--than _The Progress of Prudence_ (MILLS AND BOON). Horses and
hounds play so large a part therein as almost to be the protagonists;
certainly they are the chief influencing forces in the development of
the heroine, from the day when she attempts to purchase one of the pack,
under the impression that they are being exhibited for sale, to that
other day, some time later, when her own entry finishes second in the
Grand National. You will notice that _Prudence_ had progressed
considerably during the interval. Her early ignorance was due to the
fact that she had only just developed from a slum factory-girl into a
landed proprietress. The father of _Prudence_ had been a miser; and,
when he died in the attic where he and the girl had miserably lived, he
left her a fortune, and instructions to spend it on real estate. So Mr.
W. F. HEWER starts us on a pretty problem--how, in these circumstances,
will _Prudence_ get on? Of course, she gets on excellently; and
soon is as keen a rider to hounds and a judge of horseflesh as any
in a neighbourhood where those accomplishments are held in high
esteem. Equally of course there are men, nay lords, who fall under
the spell of her attraction; but when I tell you that the
groom-and-general-horse-master, whom _Prudence_ engaged, and under whose
tuition she so prospered, was a gentleman who had seen better days, you
will probably have already guessed the end of the tale. This is reached
after some scenes of pleasant humour and sentiment, and after I don't
know how many runs with hounds, given with a minuteness of detail that
shows Mr. HEWER to be a practised master of his subject. The same remark
applies to the various meetings at which _Prudence_ (surely a little
oddly named?) sees her colours carried to victory. Altogether a
stablesque romance that should appeal irresistibly to its own public.

* * * * *

_The Mailing of Blaise_ is Mr. A. S. TURBERVILLE'S first novel, and it
is easy to understand why Messrs. SIDGWICK AND JACKSON have drawn
attention to this fact. For the work reveals a great ignorance of, or a
supreme contempt for, the art of construction, and its theme is very
hackneyed; but at the same time Mr. TURBERVILLE observes so keenly that
I groan in the spirit when I think of so much labour misspent on a
subject unworthy of his talent. Here we have a boy with the artistic
temperament born into the house of one _Brown_, a Cheapside tail