The Danger Mark. By Robert W. Chambers. (Appleton. 6s.)—The situation
at the beginning of this novel is much more interesting than the development of the story. The book opens with an account of twin orphans of boundless fortune, a boy and a girl, living in New York, whose grandfather, being an advocate of the simple life for children, has laid down stringent rules for their education. He appoints as their guardians the directors of the Half Moon Trust Company, which is described as one of the most ancient and ultra-respectable corporations of New York, and these gentlemen have very little latitude as to the way in which the children are to be educated. They are not to be allowed to have any friends, in case they should hear that they are wealthy, and in general are to be brought up under the most artificial con- ditions. Naturally enough their education is not altogether a success, and it does not appear to occur to the Trust Company that such a scheme would be carried out very much better in a country house than in the middle of a city. There is an inherited taint of drunkenness in the family, which is one of the reasons why so many precautions are to be taken. The later develop- ment of the story when the twins grow up is merely an account of social New York. The account of Geraldine Seagrave's struggle with drunkenness is given in great detail, but the most interesting part of the later story is the description of the recent business crisis in New York, in which most of the characters of the book lose their fortunes. The author gives the picture of ultra-rich Americans' social life which has become conventional in modern fiction,—that is, of a set of perfectly brainless people with no serious interests, all of them under thirty years of age. Although the book does not quite fulfil the promise of the earlier chapters, it may be read as a curious study of American life and manners.
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