Studies in Love and in Terror. By Mrs. Bello° Lowndes.
(Methuen and Co. 6s.)—The first thing which will strike the reader about Mrs. Belloc Lowndes' collection of studies in love and terror is that except in "Why they Married" the love is entirely illicit. The stories are all extremely powerful, and the first one, "Price of Admiralty," is a remarkable tragedy in miniature, the situation dealt with being as poignant as it is possible to conceive. But the story is short, and, having so much matter packed into so small a space, it is of almost unrelieved gloom. "Why they Married" is rather more cheerful. It is also exceedingly exciting, the reader being as thrilled by the shipwreck in mid-Channel as are the friends of the heroine, and for the same reason. These people all flock to see her, regardless of the effect on her nerves, because they are so anxious to hear about a catastrophe which might have happened to any one of them—a sentiment with which no one can help being much in sympathy. The stories are all good reading, but the first and the last stand out from their companions as very much the best.
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