FICTION.
THE PEDLAR'S PACK.t
THE pedlar whose wares Mrs. Mann unpacks is a gloomy fellow, anything but an Autolyous. There were always streaks of seriousness and realism in her earlier books, especially in her treatment of rural life, but here they predominate to the shutting out of all sunshine. From start to finish there is not a single happy ending. Mrs. Mann's refusal to consult the dictates of poetic justice, even when it might furnish an effective or dramatic surprise, is quite remarkable: It amounts to something like ruthlessness in the longest story in the book, " A Boy and Girl • 4 Toes and Two Play& By Ian Sdaseflold. London : wwram Moine. Dan. Pa. neLj 1 The Pedlar's Pack, By Mary E. Mann. London MN and Boon. [ft 1.4.)
Marriage." Here, to escape from an odious and tyrannical stepfather, an attractive but wilful girl abandons a comfortable home, marries in haste, and repents not at leisure but immedi- ately. The young man has neither breeding nor wealth, but be is not a bad fellow, devoted in his way, and deserving of a better lot than to be insulted for failing to give his wife " a good time." Their estrangement is rapid, and, angered by her cold selfishness, he enlists in the ranks at the outbreak of the war. The young wife returns to her old home, then repents of her harshness, resolves to "keep the home fires burning" for her husband, and writes him a friendly letter which never reaches him ; he lms already been killed in action, and she is left a prey to her remorse. Some novelists have utilized the war as a means of suspending the development of their plots. It is otherwise with Mrs. Mann, who employs it rather as the last straw in a tragic burden. In "Died of His Wounds" we have another example of repentance which comes too late, but here the survivor is redeemed by a generous regret. "The Abode of Peace" tells of an overworked schoolmistress, seeking rest on the East Coast on the eve of the war, and beguiled by the affa- bility of an elegant stranger who is shot as a spy. Mrs. Mann is no Paefficist : her sympathies are entirely with those who have made sacrifices, great or small ; but she has excluded any aspect of the war which involves recognition, reward, or reunion —save by death. When the war does not come in, her stories are mainly tragic episodes in the lives of country folk, with avarice as the ruling passion, and leading to matricide or infanticide, death or disaster, with a monotonous oonsisteneiy. There is a certain sardonic humour in " An Enigma in Pink" ; here, for once, there are no deaths, but only disillusion. Altogether, this is a great and depressing change from the Mrs. Mann who charmed us in Rose at Honeypot or ministered to our mirth in The Sheep and the Goats.
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