19 AUGUST 1893, Page 27

Mr. Tommy Dove, and other Stories. By Margaret Deland. (Longmans.)—These

are clever stories, but of the unoheerful kind, with which it is now the fashion to try a reader's patience. The most pleasing is the last. This has the special interest of showing the cruelty with which the American principle of " Spoils to the conqueror" works. A poor woman and her daughter are turned out of a post-office, the "fourth-class appointment " which gives a title to the story, by a change of government; but the intended official happily makes everything right.