13 AUGUST 1910, Page 25

Vocation. By Lily Grant Duff. (John Murray. 6s.)—The female characters

in this book are much more successfully drawn than the male, the young painter who fulfils the part of hero being a most objectionable person, with few of the instincts of a gentleman, and with deplorable manners. The little hunchback, Lizzie, and her brilliantly beautiful cousin, Emily, are much more clearly realised, and the reader will share with some of the characters the regret that it was not Lizzie who had a vocation for the convent and Emily a talent for painting. The book is quite readable, and the minor personages are cleverly sketched.