Cornet Strong of Ireton's Horse. By Dora Greenwell McChesney. (John
Lane. 6s.)—The reader should not be discouraged by the first pages of this story. The style of the earlier part is, to be quite candid, somewhat fatiguing. " The flames had quenched the stars "—the author is describing a village burnt by Indians— "and all the place was a red dusk in which men tasted fire and blood." But when we get to the real course of the tale the style. though never simple, becomes, so to speak, more businesslike. The story itself it is difficult to criticise without unfairly reveal, ing the author's secret. We must be content with saying that it is well conceived. The "Cornet" is a very difficult study, well worked out, though necessarily out of the range of ordinary Byrn-, pithy. Fitzroy O'Neill, the chivalrous spy, we do not quite understand ; his sister Eileen is a finely drawn figure. On the whole, the cynical Flynt is our favourite, and we are always glad when he intervenes to relieve the excessive tension of the situa- tion. Cornet Strong is a tale of no little power.
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