29 JANUARY 1927, Page 27

THE DARK FIRE. By Elinor Mordaunt. (Hutchinson.' . 6d.)-The title,

needless to say, refers to the primitive. tinet which even in the best men is liable to leap into flame en the constraints of civilization are slackened. Seton. le, one of the most eligible bachelors in Sydney, is the ventional type of " clean-limbed," Public School boy.. ring occasion, however, to visit the Dutch Indies, he falls der the influence of a Javanese woman, who is cruel to him, t from whose witchery he cannot free himself. Lilian 'Honer, a Sydney friend, is infatuated with Seton, and the ry-told partly in her words and partly in Seton's own tire-describes how she probes the " mystery " that unds her lover, makes her way to the island of his en-: cement, meets the Javanese woman face to face, and ally, at the risk of her own life, rescues him from the evil II. Among melodramatic novels with a strong " Sex crest " this novel takes high rank. But we could wish that author would turn her very considerable gifts to better s.