e thing I feel certain, and that is
that the Elemental Spirits of the Heights, to whom frequent allusion is
made, must find the winter sports of a later age a sorry substitute for the
rare old frolics of the fifteenth century.

* * * * *

It can at least be claimed for Mrs. MARGARET BAILLIE SAUNDERS that she has
provided an original setting and "chorus" for her new novel, _Becky & Co_.
(HUTCHINSON). Tales of City courtship have been written often enough, but
the combination here of a millinery establishment and a community of Little
Sisters of St. Francis under one roof in the Minories, gives a stimulating
atmosphere to a story otherwise not specially distinguished. _Becky_ was,
as perhaps you may have guessed, head of the millinery business, next door
to which was housed the firm of _Ray, St. Cloud & Stiggany_, leather-
dressers, the three partners in which all presently become suitors for the
hand of _Becky._ This in effect is the story--under which thimble will the
heart of the heroine be eventually found?--a problem that, in view of the
obviously superior claims of young _St. Cloud_ over his two elderly rivals,
will not leave you long guessing. An element of novel complication is
however furnished by the device of making _St. Cloud_ at first engaged to
_Ray's_ daughter, who, subsequently retiring into the Franciscan
sisterhood, left her _fiance_ free to become the rival of her widowed
father. (As the late DAN LENO used to observe, this is a little intricate!)
For the rest, as I have said, an agreeable, very feminine story of mingled
sentiment, commerce and ecclesiastical interest, the last predominating.

* * * * *

It is possible that _The Sea Bride_ (MILLS AND BOON) may be too violent to
suit all tastes, for Mr. BEN AMES WILLIAMS writes of men primitive in their
loves and hates, and he describes them graphically. The scenes of this
story are set on the whaler _Sally_, commanded by a man of mighty renown in
the whaling world. When we meet him he has passed his prime and has just
taken unto himself a young wife. She goes with him in the _Sally_, and the
way in which Mr. WILLIAMS shows how her courage increases as her husband's
character weakens wins my most sincere admiration. His tale would be
nothing out of the common but for his skill in giving individuality to his
characters. Things happen on the _Sally_, bloodthirsty, sinister, terrible
things, whi