HUCCA'S MOOR. By Ruth Manning Saunders. (Faber and Gwyer. 7s.
ad.).-The tragedy of Zephan Wall, a half- idiot pedlar is that his ludicrous ambitions only accentuate his poverty of mind and body. His patient wife, Deborah, is housekeeper to a gigantic bed-ridden miner, by name Bendigo Scoffern ; and his step-daughter, Mabel Best, is an imbecile of twenty-six, who plays with toys and has screaming fits. She is convicted of the murder, of which she was innocent, and removed to an asylum. The book concludes with descriptions of her mother's misery, and Zephan's brain-storms and suicide. It is, in its dreary way, very well done, though whether it were worth doing at all is a question for each reader to decide. The atmosphere of horror is sustained throughout, and there is not one pleasant moment in the story. Those who hike to wallow in misery may find some justification for the book, which is for the few-and for what a few I
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