BEANSTALK. By Mrs. Henry Dudeney. (Coffins. 7s. 6d. net,)—Mrs. Henry
Dudeney in her new novel writes of the passion of motherhood. The heroine, who has been the victim of a terrible accident in early youth, believes herself incapable of having children and, with the consent of her husband, obtains the charge of a love baby, whom she passes off as her own. Her recovery of sanity after the baby has been taken from her by its own mother is not entirely credible, though it may perhaps be explained by the arrival of a genuine baby. This, however, must strike the reader as an evasion of the psychological problem which Mrs. Dudeney has set herself —the real baby being too obvious a solution. The Sussex background of this story is, as usual, most excellently realized, and the author's description of the scenery and of the quiet of the English countryside at night will make all her readers want to turn farmers. Mrs. Dudeney is always worth reading, though this book is not quite so remarkably able as her suburban romance, Made to Measure.
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