6 JULY 1929, Page 31

WHERE THE HEART LIES. By Ruth Bmckington (Chapman and Hall.

7s. 6d.)—This is a particularly charming novel of the quieter kind. Lyndsey Lee, a cultured, dignified, orderly woman in her mid-thirties, has lived for some years in pleasant rural seclusion when duty suddenly compels her to make a home for two orphaned nieces with independent means. Molly, the younger sister, is disconcertingly spon- taneous and exuberant, while Jennifer, with her brooding artistic temperament, is a mystery and a problem. The story describes the separate—or, rather, the overlapping—romances of aunt and nieces. Miss Broekington is guilty to some extent of manipulating her characters to suit her underlying thesis— namely, that there are three main types of lover. One loves with the heart alone, another with the brain alone, and the third with heart and brain combined. But, apart from slight touches of exaggeration and improbability, the story is uncommonly natural, and displays great delicacy of observa- tion, intuition, and humour.