The Squire's Daughter. By Archibald Marshall. (Methuen and Co. 6s.)—This
is an exceedingly clever book, as indeed might be expected of the author. It deals entirely with the description of an old-fashioned county family in " Meadshire," which may be taken to be somewhere in the West Country. The art of the story lies in its character-drawing, every one of the persons standing out in full relief against his or her background. The irascible father, the head of the house of Clinton, with his patient wife and his tribe of sons and daughters, are all equally well depicted. Mr. Marshall appears greatly to admire the self-abnegation of Mrs. Clinton, who has deliberately effaced herself intellectually in order that her husband may have exactly his own way. It must be confessed that the reader will probably think this much less admirable than the author, for in suppressing herself Mrs. Clinton not only did a very bed turn to her husband, whose masterful- ness developed without check, but also entirely sacrificed her daughters: The tradition of the Clinton family was that the women should always give way to the men, and it was uncommonly hard on Cicely Clinton, the heroine of this book, that her mother had not made some sort of stand against this "custom of the tribe." Cicely's adventure with the celebrated explorer is very well told, and it is impossible to help admiring the worldly wisdom of her brother Dick, who saved her from all its evil consequences. The book is altogether extremely clever, though it is to be hoped there are not many specimens of the old- fashioned squire represented by Mr. Clinton.
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