20 FEBRUARY 1915, Page 23

The Temple of Dawn. By I. A. R. Wylie. (Mills

and Boon. 6s.)—It would be useless to assert, as publishers love to do, that Miss Wylie's latest novel is the product of a remarkable understanding of Anglo-Indian relationships, for her dis- courses on the matter are neither subtle nor particularly convincing, and her East tends to be the East of nantch girls and villainous natives of hypnotic power. Rather, this is a book for those who are not ashamed to enjoy a stirring story with plenty of intrigue and a generous allowance of the more primitive emotions, and, since we are far from being desirous or capable of tracing out the many complexities of the plot, suffice it to say that it is woven round the ever-popular figure of the social outcast who is still a gentleman, of the strong man who puts up a stern fight against his overwhelming passions. But it seems to ns a pity that the writer should have taken so seriously the duty of characterization, and should have given us laborious accounts of the psychology of her men and women; for in a melodrama of this admirable kind it is surely allowable to forgo all introspection, and to dangle your puppets frankly by visible string..