When Leaves were Green. By Sydney Hodges. (Cbatto and Windus.)—This
is a readable, easy-flowing story—unfor- tunately distended to three volumes—of folk more or leas "in society." What sort of folk these are may be gathered from the leading adventuress, Mrs. Courtenay Byng, of whom it is written, " Her dress fitted her well-rounded figure to perfection. It was cut low in front and behind, with a bordering of creamy lace, which mingled harmoniously with the delicate tints of the open neck and bust. Her hair was twisted in graceful, careless coils about her head, and just a light fringe played over her forehead, so loosely that while it softened the outline, it did not hide the contour of the face." One has a suspicion from the very first that, with such attractions and with an eager desire to make the most of them, Mrs. Byng will endanger the peace of mind of the hero and artist of the story, Glyn Beverley, who is "close on six feet in his stockings, broad- shouldered, deep-chested, fair-haired, well-featured, without being strictly handsome, and has soft gray eyes wherein was a world of thought and no leek of sentiment." As a matter of fact, Mrs. Byng does manage to marry Glyn. This is very bad of her, for two reasons. He is not in love with her, but with Blanche Venables. Then he marries her in the belief that she is wealthy and a widow. Happily she is neither, but is married to the wicked Captain D'Eyncourt. All sorts of complications are the result, and there is of course plenty of room for their development in three volumes. Ultimately all ends rather well and even tamely, for Glyn, after being nearly killed by a flash of lightning, which anticipated by a second or two the murderous arm of Captain D'Eynconrt, gets his eyesight back when he is happily married. When Leaves were Green will thus be seen to be, essentially at least, a quite ordinary story, not of the pleasantest kind. But as it is full of incident and fairly well- to-do humanity, and as it is more than passably written, it is almost certain to be popular.
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