The Beleaguered Forest. By Elia W. Peattie. (William Heinemann. 4s.)—The
first chapters of The Beleaguered Forest are occupied with the vagaries of a young woman who has thought herself an artist, and had her eyes sud- denly opened to the fact that she is none by the somewhat brutal candour of a rejected lover. Regina Grey, having burnt her pictures and given up her studio, snatches a desperate joy out of a few social appearances, and then expects to sink into insignificance. But at the critical moment she learns that she has lost all her private means, and that she must face poverty as well as neglect. She is rather sorry that she refused Dick Helderson, but Dick has returned to a forgotten allegiance to a lady who is hit off by Regina as a "drab woman." Regina is not " drab," but flamboyant. She cannot face social extinction, and therefore closes with the offer of a man from North Michigan, who lives most of his time at a remote logging camp and has a personal record of gloom and terror. He does not pretend to be in love with Regina, but announces simply that he has come out of the forest to seek a wife, as he can no longer support the solitude of his life. He hints at mysterious hauntings. And the mystery turning out to be opium, the serious interest of the story begins when the flighty woman settles down to the grim duty she has thoughtlessly taken upon herself, and fights for the soul and the sanity of her husband against the evil habit. There are some fine passages and some very picturesque scenes in the book. But one wishes it could have been brought to a less conventional ending than that of the husband's friend who loves the wife and is to have her when the fight is over.
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