Rank and Riches. By Archibald Marshall. (Stanley Paul and Co.
6s.)—There is, what is rare in modern fiction, a sense of peaceful sincerity about all Mr. Marshall's work. We are conscious of it in two directions—partly, he writes, we feel, because he must needs write, not for the sake of earning money or of seeing his name in print, but because he has something to say ; partly, he seems to be describing real people, not by especially subtle characterization, but by making us forget that it is characterization, that he is not speaking of his per- sonal friends and acquaintance. Indeed, the Clintons and the Kemsale folk may by now be considered to be his friends. At all events, the result is one of remarkable truth and sim- plicity. This latest story is concerned, as its name indicates, with the settlement in a quiet county of a self-made, rather delightful family, and with the friendship and hostility toward them of the older inhabitants. It moves in a leisurely way, with whole chapters devoted to "Sunday morning" and "Sunday afternoon," and the stage is thronged, though never crowded. There is some work in it which is admirable, and we are grateful to Mr. Marshall for the happiness of the Irvinge' married life and for his account of the coming of the war to Kemsale.
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