The Beau's Comedy. By Beulah Marie Dix and Carrie A.
Harper. (Harper and Brothers. 6s.)—It is only on copying the title- page that the present writer has become aware that this charming little book is the work of two ladies. It is, notwithstanding many notable instances to the contrary, a surprise that anything so delicately delightful should not have boon conceived in one mind and executed by one hand. The chapters at the beginning are not promising, the authors finding some difficulty in avoiding anachronisms in the dialogue. Till the sedan-chair is heard rattling in the street below the reader is uncertain whether the ladies belong to the twentieth or the eighteenth century. But once the hero, Landry Walford, gets to "his Majesty's Province of Massachusetts Bay," the book improves vastly. The winter story of the detention of Walford in Mr. Bliss's farm pending letters of identification from England is a most charming piece of work. It is an idyll of country life enlivened by the dry humour of Bliss himself, and the charm of the girl heroine, Olive. We advise all readers who like a work not serious, but fresh, sparkling, and full of fanciful fun, to read The Beau's Comedy.
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