Cottage Folk. By Mrs Comyns Carr. (Heinemann.)—There is tragedy in
these studies of life, as there must be in all such studies, if they are to be true to nature. But the tragedy is mingled with comedy, and so it should be. Mrs. Comyns Carr shows herself able to deal with both satisfactorily. "The Hoppers," the first story in the volume, is a fine bit of human history. It gives us both the cloud and the silver lining. Not unlike it is the last, "A Ne'er-do-weel." The young fellow who has broken his mother's heart can yet behave with chivalrous kindness to a destitute girl, and warm a frozen bird into life in his bosom. "A Woman's Wager" is a quite charming love-story. We cannot say that the others are not worth reading ; but no one can read them with pleasure. Are the epithets in "slender amethyst clouds" well chosen? An amethyst sky we know, but against what did the amethyst clouds show their colour ?
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