The Winning Lady, and Others. By Mary E. Wilkins Freeman.
(Harper and Brothers. 6s.)—These eleven stories are of a kind of which our Transatlantic cousins seem to have a monopoly. They are studies of life, quite ordinary life, which yet, as we see it portrayed, becomes full of vivid interest. Niles, of course, there is, and there is always humour, mingled sometimes with irony. Certainly it is so in "The Selfishness of Amelia Lamkin." The selfishness lay in endlessly serving others, doing what they did not like doing, eating what they did not care about. There is but one out of the whole number on which we have any criticism to make. This is " Old Woman Macgoun." How did so dismal a tragedy find its way into company so incongruous ? The old grandmother sees an evil heredity in her grandchild Lily ; the girl's father is ready to hand her over to a profligate associate ; and "Old Woman Maegoun" stands by while the child, who is indeed scarcely whole-witted, eats the berries of a deadly night- shade. What a bomb to throw into a peaceful neighbourhood !
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