Hardy-on-the-Hill. By M. E. Francis (Mrs. F. Blundell). (Methuen and
Co. 6s.)—Mrs. Blundell has arranged for her new story a scene which is altogether suited to her manner. It lies in Dorsetshire, we gather, not because there are any obvious indica- tions of locality, but from subtle hints that she is drawing an actual landscape and real people. The Hardy family is of the substantial yeoman class, long planted in the soil, but the indi- viduals to whom we are introduced are not of the ordinary type. Stephen chances to be a man of unusual culture; Rebecca, his stepmother, had married above her rank. This fact justifies an extra touch of homeliness, Of which a very skilful use is made. Then the folk from the town come upon the scene : Mr. Leslie, a somewhat conventional Oxford Don, and his daughters, ignorant, perhaps beyond what is probable, of all country matters. Kitty, the elder, has a quite urban way of looking down upon the rustic; Bees, the younger, is a flirt to whom all men are fair game. This, then, is the environment of the story, and these, with Sheba Baverstock, whom our readers will discover for themselves, the characters. That Mrs. Blundell makes a capital story out of them it is scarcely necessary to say. We could have dispensed with the episode of Mr. Mowbray and Kitty. She is certainly not herself in this affair.
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