Lindley Says. By Barry Pain. (Methuen and Co. 63.)—Mr. Barry
Pain is happier and more at home in the realms of comedy than in those of more or less serious fiction. This fact is proved by the present story, of which the least successful parts are Mr. Pain's incursions into the land of romance, and the most suc- cessful his realistic descriptions of home life in the family of a prosperous ironmonger. The author must also be advised not to have more than one character to whose name he affixes the title " Sir " ; otherwise, as in the novel before us, he may get con- fused between the Christian names of the two gentlemen. In this book there is a Sir Charles Amadei, a personage whose role is merely to fill up the background. There is also a character who is introduced to the reader as Sir Henry Mariland, and who is so called for a great many pages. Indeed, the heading of one chapter is "About Sir Henry." Yet when this gentleman, greatly to the disgust of the hero, marries the heroine, the reader is informed that "Sir Charles and Lady Mariland had left for Egypt in the previous December, immediately after their marriage." And "Sir Charles" the husband remains up to his very gratifying death. The best piece of work in the book is the character of Mr. Kaye, the hero's father. It is really clever of Mr. Pain to have made any one so disagreeable quite tolerable. Mr. Kays is an excellent-hearted man, and his faults are the faults produced by a complete lack of a sense of humour, all of which is as obvious to the reader as if the man stood before him. It is a great misfortune that it was necessary to kill such a successful character so early in the story.
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