The Valley of Regret. By Adelaide Holt. (John Lane. 6s.)—
The horrible tragedy which breaks this novel into two distinct parts is perhaps a little out of key with the whole tone of the book. The sentence of seven years' penal servitude passed on the person who appears for nearly half the volume to be intended for the hero, causes a change in the characters and the theme of the story, which is almost too abrupt to be artistic. In the second part the heroine, whose husband has received this sentence, makes her home in some flats on the south side of the river in London and immerses herself in social work. Nothing in her character before this moment has made the reader think that this will be her new way of life, and though the shock must be terrible indeed to any woman of seeing her husband condemned to penal servitude for the manslaughter of a man who has insulted her, it is difficult to believe that it could have brought about a total change of character. The descriptions of Betty's happy evenings with the slum children are charmingly given, though it must be confessed that both the delightful Anglican priest and the brusque doctor are rather conventional figures. The latter is the hero of the second part of the book, and he and Betty discover their love for each other when the husband is about to be released from prison, and resolve to part. The end of the story is a little vague. Probably the author intends to imply that the husband dies, but the description of his death is so elusive that the reader cannot quite tell what is meant. The book, though not well constructed, is written in an interesting manner, and Betty the heroine is an attractive figure.
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