It is a matter for regret that the shadow of
the deceased wife's sister should be over A Japanese Marriage (A. and C. Black), for it is a bright and spirited story, full of colour and incident, and its author, Mr. Douglas Sladen, writes well and with an enthu- siasm which is catching. The title of the story is, indeed, some- what misleading. "A Japanese Marriage" suggests a marriage between two Japanese, whereas the wedding which actually takes place in the story is between English folk. Philip Sandys, a wealthy Englishman, who arrives in Yokohama, does not, like everybody else, fall in love with Brynhild, or Bryn Avon, when he first sees her, although " her dress, which was in the latest London fashion, fitted her so clingingly, and she was so perfectly corseted that activity seemed out of the question," but with her plainer-looking, elder sister Mary. Philip and Mary get married, Bryn having, wits feminine perversity, fallen in love with him. The father of the girls dies, leaving his affairs in an embarrassed condition. Bryn goes to live with her brother-in-law; Mary sus- tains a terrible accident and dies, leaving a child and an injunc- tion to Bryn and Philip to marry. They do nothing of the kind, however. On the contrary, some mischievous gossip relating to Bryn's peculiar "position" reaches her ears, and she goes to England. There she is subjected to the rude attentions of an objectionable Anglican clergyman, and returns to Yokohama more in love with Philip than ever. Their anion is brought about with the help of the American Minister, the Church and its dignitaries having declined in obedience to law to have anything to do with it. The story is full of life, and several of the characters, especially Bryn and that excellent specimen of the English nobleman, Lord Romney, whom she refuses, are very well drawn. We have, perhaps, too much slang of the " Johnnie " order, and too many " inventory " descriptions of personal appearance, like "a decidedly pretty woman with a slim, upright figure, auburn hair, and the brilliant complexion that often goes with it, but rather a weak mouth, full of charming teeth."
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