Account Rendered. By E. P. Benson. (W. Heinemann. eel— Mr.
Benson's new book contains a very clever oharaoter-sketch of an elderly woman who, from indulgence in various small decep- tions, falls to the telling of a lie of such enormous proportions that it constitutes a crime of the first magnitude. Mr. Benson gives by various delicate touches an admirable picture of the elder Lady Tenby's disposition, of her great appearance of youthfulness, her cheerfulness, and the broad-mindedness which make her attractive to the reader in spite of her crooked ways. The unimpeachable morality of this sketch is rather marred by the calmness with which Mr. Benson assumes that suicide in certain circumstances is an act of virtue. There seems to be no question either in the mind of the author or in that of the most virtuous Lord Tenby that when he makes the discovery that he has won his wife by a trick on the part of his mother, he should immediately, as the Italians would say, " remove the inconvenience." As a work of art the book is a little spoilt by the great detail with which, in the earlier chapters, Mr. Benson describes Mrs. Winthrop, a lady who is not going to play a very important part in the story. The figure of the heroine, the governess turned heiress, is perhaps a little conventional, but the book is well worth reading for the sake of the clever study mentioned above.
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