stories, is supposed to be a little town in Holland.
The Dutch scenes of country-town life which she puts before her readers are picturesque and remarkably well focussed. It is difficult to be slightly satirical, and yet not to "minify," to make an incident wholly ridiculous, and yet not wholly insignificant. This diffi- culty Mrs. Lane has surmounted. When the Burgomaster of Kitwyk sets his heart on ornamenting the Council Chamber with a sofa to be kept for his own exclusive use, in the hope of augment- ing the dignity of his office, the reader laughs, but he feels at the same time that this matter of the sofa was of real significance in Kitwyk, and appeared in the eyes of the Town Councillors to have an importance almost equal to that of the French Revolu- tion. The scenes arranged round the town pump, where the girls of the village go to draw water, are pretty, but remind the reader too much of Gilbert and Sullivan's operas.
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