25 JUNE 1898, Page 13

A Flame of Fire. By Mrs. Haweis. (Hurst and Blackett.)

— If we ever reproached the novelist with making the end of his life - story with what really begins it, marriage, we heartily repent. The modern tale mostly begins in this way, and the modern tale is mostly a pain and grief. " I wrote this story," says Mrs. Haweis in her " Forewords "—we thought this absurd affectation was done with—"to vindicate the helplessness of womankind." Her heroine marries in the first chapter, and continues to suffer for it through the chapters that follow, till the fates tardily repent and give her the happiness which she has missed. The ending, in which the son atones for the sin of the father, is the most powerful part of the book.