Broken Arcs. By Christopher Hare. (Harper and Brothers.) —We are
inclined to prefer the episodes of the story to the story itself, the by-play of the drama to the drama itself, the minor characters to the protagonists. Sylvia, for instance, is a charming child. Her first experience in teaching a class in Sunday-school is quite delightful. In another passage the rector goes fly-fishing and catches some trout of a pound each with a red spinner. We wish he could have stopped by the streamside and not met the angry squire. The tale has to do with the love affair Of two soldiers, one an officer, the other a private, who come from the same village, and it is full of trouble and sadness, except when Mr. Hare, who has a very pretty talent for description of rural things and rural manners, and gives his dialogues in Doric of irreproachable purity, permits a digression. It is a clever book, and we wish that the author could have found it consistent with his art to make it a more cheerful one.
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