Prophet Peter. By Mayne Lindsay. (Ward, Lock, and Co. 6s.)
—There is no little subtlety in this study of character. When we come to the end of the story of "Prophet Peter" we do not feel quite sure what he was, in what proportions genuine conviction, vanity, and self-seeking were mingled in him, when conscious self-deception began and when it ended. And if Peter perplexes us, still more does Gwendolen ; only we are sure that the propor- tion of the meaner emotions was larger in her than in the man whose evil genius she becomes. We cannot, however, acquit Mr. Lindsay altogether of caricature. Mrs. Crump is a possible type of narrow piety; her brother-in-law, liezeiciah, is too unctuous and false. That there are hypocrites as gross we would not deny, but the appearance and the reality do not meet in their conscious- ness in quite so definite a contrast. Eve, on the other hand, with her absolute aloofness from all that is not practical, is an admirable little figure. Prophet Peter takes a good place in the fiction a the year.
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