of picturesque
and amusing things, all of which her narrator has quite obviously
herself recalled, and sat down in excellent fashion. I don't want you to
run away with the idea that _Anna_ was a good or even a pleasant child.
Anything but that. The things she did and said furnished a more than
sufficient reason for her father to threaten again and again to send her
to school in England. The book ends with the realisation of this, which
had always been to _Anna_ as a kind of shadowy horror in the background
of life. We are not told which particular English school was favoured
with her patronage, nor how she got on there. I was too interested in
her career not to be sorry for this omission; and that shall be my
personal tribute to her attractions.

* * * * *

There are few persons who can write love stories with a surer and more
tender touch than KATHARINE TYNAN. So I expect that many gentle souls
will share my pleasure in the fact that she has just put together a
volume of studies in this kind under the amiable title of _Lovers'
Meetings_ (WERNER LAURIE). Personally my only complaint about them is
that in a short story lovers' meetings mean the journey's end, and I
wished to spend a longer time in the society of many of the agreeable
characters of Mrs. HINKSON'S studies. Take for example the first--and my
own favourite--of the series. There really isn't anything special in
it--and yet there is everything. What happened was that _Challoner_, a
confirmed bachelor, went to the Dublin quay to see off a friend on the
boat to Holyhead. The friend didn't turn up; but a young governess, with
whom _Challoner_ had only the slightest previous acquaintance, was going
by the boat--so _Challoner_ went with her, and they were married, and
lived happy ever after. You may think that this doesn't sound very
probable, and perhaps it doesn't; but it is so charmingly
told--_Challoner's_ growing delight in the initial mistake that confuses
the pair as man and wife is so alluringly developed, and the whole
little episode of twenty pages has such a way with it as to take your
credulity a willing captive. This was my individual choice; but there
are fifteen others of various styles; some mild detective studies, and a
pathetic little ghost story that recalls to me one of KIPLING'S best.
Altogether an attractive collection, very far above many such that have
appeared lately.

* * * *