The Romance of a Picture, and other Stories. By Trude
Marsh. (Bemrose and Sons.)—This is a collection of pleasant stories, which, if not quite written with a "religious purpose," have a sort of cathedral-close air about them. " The Romance of a Picture," which leads off the series, gives a very good idea of the tone and method of the whole Barbara, the daughter of one artist, is loved by another. Her father, who is an irritable failure, in order to give her a life free from anxiety, seeks to force her into a loveless marriage. Then, when he gives up this attempt as hopeless, and attempts to achieve a success in his art by a great picture idealis- ing his daughter, that work has to be finished and rendered sale- able by her lover. All is well, however, that ends both happily and artistically. "Ronald's Revenge" is another typical story, which runs, however, on more commonplace lines, because it tells of a person who meditates a savage revenge on the man at whose door is laid the death of his daughter of a broken heart. But having been brought under the influence of a truly Christian philosopher, Ronald, when he has his enemy in his power, saves that man's life at the expense of his own. Some of the tales, such as " The Story of a Mistake," are in a lighter vein. But all have, more or less, an ennobling tendency, and chiefly through the suffering of some one in them. Altogether this is an excellent book,—enter- taining as well as edifying,—to be placed in the hands of a girl.
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