DIONYS. By Nancy Roper. (Alston Rivers. 7s. 6d.)— The writer
of this novel is just seventeen years old we are told. Sere Leverel, a " rover and conqueror " with mingled Russian and Latin blood in his veins, goes North to explore Arctic regions. Wrecked on a lonely Scandinavian island, he is rescued by Dionys, the most beautiful boy he has ever seen. On further acquaintance Dionys, Of course, proves to be a girl. who has been brought up hardily by her fisherman father. Leverel falls violently in love with her. But the fire and inde- pendence of her elemental nature are too strong for him. De- termined, after a career of conquest, not to be baffled by a mere girl, he seeks to subdue her by- force and subterfuge, getting the marriage ceremony performed by a ruse and carry- ing his bride South. There follow some chapters of breathless conflict and adventure before Dionys finally has her revenge. This tense, if ingenuous, story, in which the alternating Southern and grim Northern backgrounds are vividly con- ceived, shows descriptive and dramatic powers remarkable in one so young.
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