11 APRIL 1903, Page 23

Contrasts. By Florence Henniker. (John Lane. 6s.)—No one can afford

to read this collection of short stories who is not overflowing with health and spirits. They are marked by a uniformly hopeless dreariness, and "A Brand of Discord" is almost the only one which does not cause a. heartache. The two saddest of all are "The Butterfly" and "The Man who Waited," which are both written with a most poignant art, and cause a sort of rage in the reader at the useless suffering which exists in the world. The tragedy is on too small a scale to be tolerable. The stories show much insight into character, and an almost inhuman power of devising heartrending situations in everyday life.