The Flower of Poem, and other Stories. By M. Betham-Edwards.
(Ward and Downey.)—The chief story in-this volume is of the melo- dramatic kind. The hero is an Irish patciot who seeks. to effect his country's liberation by dynamite ; the heroine is also of Irish race and jealors for her country, but ODO who abhors the propaganda. of crime. She is past thirty when the story opens; in her early youth she bad regarded the conspirator with an intense love of which he did not even know ; now, though she has ceased to love him, she conceives the idea of reclaiming him from his.career of crime by marryinghim. But conspirators donut easily find freedom from the chains with which they are entangled ; and the story has; as might be expected, a- tragical ending. Melancholy rather than tragedy-characterises the other tales. The best of them, "Love and Manuscript," has this element less developed. Here an editor falls in love with a young lady whose manuscript he has lost. His perplexities are pleasantly described, and we are at least permitted to hope that his suit ends prosperously. The conception of the "Group of Immortals," whimsical as it is, has a certain freshness about it ; and there is a gravity in the moral lesson of "A Rebuke among Roses" which ought to be thankfully recognised. Altogether the volume will at least sustain Miss Betham-Edwards's literary reputation.
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