Mrs. Day's Daughters. By Mary E. Mann. (Hodder and Stoughton.
6s.)—Mrs. Mann's new book appears at first sight to be comedy of the lightest order : it is really a tragedy, the tragedy of hereditary weakness in dealing with money matters, for the peaceable course of the Day family record is twice hindered by the " failure " and disgrace of first father, then son, till Mrs. Day must keep the grocery shop, and the daughters wonder and wrangle over their petty love affairs. Little enough plot is there in the book ; yet
what there is seems almost an intrusion from that con- ventional world of fiction which is responsible for Mr. Day's sudden and convenient death. Where Mrs. Mann excels is in her tranquil understanding of the people and ways of a provincial town—how the girls' presence at a concert after the failure of their father is an "offence" ; how the kind-hearted ladies of their acquaintance forsake their tradesmen to deal with Mrs. Day—and in her power to depict vividly, with no unnecessary detail, the sudden helplessness and triviality of the family at the coming of serious disgrace. When it comes to the portrait of the two girls, Mrs. Mann errs a little on the side of exaggeration: the contrast between the sisters is too decisive—Bessie, the elder, unnaturally weak and idle, her hysterics too incessant, her love affairs too imaginary; whilst it is impossible to believe that even the charming and excellent Deleah would not have taken a livelier interest in her many proposals. But this is, perhaps, to confess that the world seems "dull and flat, when there's nothing whatever to grumble at," for Mrs. Mann's writing is throughout admirable, and her book worthy of the highest praise.
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