THE STORY. OF. IVY.: .13y Mrs. Belloc LoWndes. (Heine- mann;
7s. 6d.)----" She's., a :-.perfect -little minx." . Such., is Lady Dale's opinion of Lexton, after she has seen her for but a few minutes. : But, eXCeiit for Lady Dale, Ivy deceives, the very elect. Amazingly beautiful, and apparently child- like and tender-hearted, she has in reality a soulless thirst
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for -money, pleasure, and notoriety, which her husband, Jervis, being poor, cannot satisfy. She therefore inveigles into her coils a wealthy. bachelor, Miles Rushvrorth, and when she finds that Miles is restrained by old-fashioned ideas of morality, she determines upon the slow poison of her husband. Jervis duly dies, and when suspicion falls upon another of her lovers, Dr. Gretorex, a man thoroughly unselfish in his devo- tion, Ivy allows him to take her place in the dock, though finally, in a hurried attempt to recover some grains of poison left in her forgotten hand-bag, she falls down a lift-shaft and is killed. This is one of Mrs. Lowndes's best stories. It has a strong vein of mystery and sensation, and yet gives us a variety of true characterization and some shrewd commentary on modern life.
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