COME BY CHANCE. By Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick (Collins. 7s. 6d.)
is not one of the best examples of the authoress's leisurely and slightly sardonic humour. It is the straight- forward and almost hurried history of Nan Sothern, whose mother has been divorced, and whose legal father, disbelieving in his paternity, keeps her at a distance. She is happy in a tomboy Cornish childhood till an interfering great-aunt sends her away to be educated in circumstances of indignity and semi-starvation. Escaping to her kind, irresponsible mother, Leila, and her protector, Count Stefan, she goes with them to Italy, where her existence becomes highly coloured but agitating. After many adventures, Leila decides to marry the spoiled son of an austere Bloomsbury lady, so they return to England. The effect of the flamingo-like Leila on the formal household of Mrs. Quayle seems to cheer Mrs. Sidgwick, who becomes quite maliciously gay at this point. But Leila,
nding the menage impossible, vanishes to Brazil, leaving n to be consoled by a young man she had met in Italy. Mrs. Sidgwick's amused tolerance allows her to make a sympathetic figure of the conscienceless, disreputable, but amiable Leila. The other people, however, especially the unpleasant ones, seem really too crudely sketched ; and poor Nan's love-affair is very casually indicated. It is a rapid, quite interesting story ; but those who have enjoyed Mrs. Sidgwick at her best will be disappointed.
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