1 APRIL 1905, Page 20

Mrs. Galer's Business. By W. Pett Ridge. (Methuen and Co.

6s.)—Mrs. Galer, the heroine of Mr. Pett Ridge's new volume, conducts an exceedingly successful laundry business. She is very early in the story freed from the burden of supporting Mr. Galer, who (like some other husbands in a more exalted station of life) can only be characterised as being "just an expense." Although the general tone of the book is cheerful, so that the reader on laying it down has no feeling of having assisted at a tragedy, almost all the events which occur in it are essentially sad. But the indomitable optimism of the heroine rims through the whole, and supports both Mrs. Galer and the reader even in the last and worst catastrophe of the marriage of " Sid " to the insufferably snobbish young lady who calmly announces that she intends to "take him away" from his mother. The portrait of Mrs. Galer is cleverly drawn, the only thing which is a little unconvincing being her infatuation for the "Captain," though far be it from the present writer to say that it is untrue to life. Mr. Pett Ridge in this book contrives to give a well-