is first
important, then, to acquit Mr. L. A. TALBOT of every offence of which,
in the blackness of the outward circumstances, he might be
suspected--affectations, anachronisms, excess of local and contemporary
colour, absence of humour or human touches, any tendency to bore. The
book presents a charming picture of the counties on the Welsh Border and
unravels a delightful tale in which the characters talk the language
peculiar to their time, but are controlled by the everlasting motives of
human nature. Though the times were harder than ours the people seem to
have been neither better nor worse than we are; and, when approached
from such a point of view as Mr. TALBOT has taken, there is nothing to
be said against, but very much to be said for, the period of 1154-1189,
which, as every schoolboy is punished for not knowing, covers the reign
of HENRY II.

* * * * *

Miss MILLS YOUNG does not, I think, improve as an artist. _The Purple
Mists_ (LANE) is her latest book, and it is not so real and satisfactory
a piece of work as _Grit Lawless_ or _Atonement_. The theme of her new
novel is the coming of love to two people who married without any other
emotion than restrained but unmistakable antipathy. Why people should do
these things so often in novels I do not know, but on the present
occasion _Euretta_ (_Euretta_ is not an attractive name) and _John Shaw_
(you can tell by _his_ name that he is a strong silent man who is deep
in his work and has no time to bother about women) are driven into
matrimony by Miss MILLS YOUNG. After a while it appears that _Mr. Shaw_
is beginning to care for _Euretta_ very much, but he shows his affection
for her by avoiding her as much as possible and snarling when she speaks
to him. It is obvious that a more kindly figure must be somewhere close
at hand eager to console _Euretta_. Miss YOUNG discovers him, finds that
he is precisely the deep-drinking, warm-hearted rascal necessary for
this kind of occasion, and provides him with the inevitable situations
proper to the _tertium quid_. The defects of _The Purple Mists_ all
arise from the fact that Miss MILLS YOUNG has been told by her friends
that she tells a good story. If, next time, she thinks first of her
characters and then chronicles their logical development, instead of
forcing them into a threadbare plot, she will give us the fine book of
which I am sure she is capable.

* * * *