incing
ever quite materialises. The heroine, Armenian and beautiful, is
as ineffective as the hero, who is French and heroic, both of them
displaying the same unfortunate tendency to be carried off captive by
the other side and to indulge in small talk when they should be most
splendid. And the majority of the other figures follow suit. On the
face of it the volume is stuffed with all the material of melodrama;
but somehow the authoress seems to strive after effects that don't
come naturally to her. What does come naturally to her is seen in a
background sketch of the unhappy countries of Asia Minor in the hands
of the Turk and the Hun, which is so much the abler part of the book
that one would almost rather the too intrusive narrative were brushed
aside entirely. Personally, at any rate, I think I should prefer Mrs.
INCHBOLD in essay or historical form.

* * * * *

Madame ALBANESI, in _Tony's Wife_ (HOLDEN AND HARDINGHAM), has
provided her admirers with a goodly collection of sound Albanesians,
but she has also given them a villain in whom, I cannot help thinking,
they will find themselves hard-pressed to believe. _Richard Savile_
was deprived of a great inheritance by _Tony's_ birth, and as his
guardian spent long years in nourishing revenge. He was not, we know,
the first guardian to play this game, but that he could completely
deceive so many people for such a long time seems to prove him far
cleverer than appears from any actual evidence furnished. If, however,
this portrait is not in the artist's best manner, I can praise without
reserve the picture of _Lady Feo_, a little Society butterfly, very
frivolous on the surface, but concealing a lot of nice intuition and
sympathy, and I welcome her as a set-off to the silly caricatures we
commonly get of the class to which she belonged. Let me add that
in the telling of this tale Madame ALBANESI retains her quiet and
individual charm.

* * * * *

[Illustration: A MARCH-PAST AS PORTRAYED BY OUR TYPIST ON HER
MACHINE.]

* * * * *

A CURIOUS ROMANIAN CUSTOM.

"The two white doves which were perched in the wedding
carriage excited much interest. They were given, following the
pretty Roumanian cuckoo, to the bride and bridegroom by the
people of Roumania to symbolise the happiness and peace which
are hoped to the newly-married couple."--_North Mail_.