21 DECEMBER 1907, Page 25

Broken Of By Mrs. Baillie Reynolds. (Hodder and Stoughton. Os.)—It

is rather a disappointment to find a writer of Mrs. Bantle Reynolds's ability straying into the paths of melodrama. The hero of this book, Thorold Strong, is a distinctly conventional and melodramatic figure, while the beautiful and mystical Osmnuda, the heroine, is net very convincing. It is unfortunate, too, that the artist who supplies the frontispiece portrait of Osmunda has apparently neglected to read the book. The young lady with the roses looks anything but mystical, and has an appearance of greatly enjoying the good things of life and the admiration of her neighbours. Mrs. Baillie Reynolds's writing is never actually dull, but it must be confessed that in her present novel she comes perilously near it.