15 DECEMBER 1906, Page 22

The First Claim. By H. Hamilton. (Methuen and Co. Cs.)—

Readers of "Cut Laurels" will be more than a little disappointed in this book. The story is extremely clever ; but it is so painful that the present writer, at any rate, found difficulty in getting through it. It may be a very just punishment for a woman who elopes with another man, leaving a little child behind her, to find that this child is treated with a strictness amounting to cruelty by the woman whom her husband marries after the inevitable divorce. There is, however, no reason why the innocent reader's feelings should be wrung by such a recital. The plot which Miss Hamilton has chosen for her book is carried out with great cleverness and detail ; but we feel bound to say that the story is one which very few people will be able to take any pleasure in reading.