Boston Neighbours in Town and Out. By Agnes Blake Poor.
(G. P. Putnam's Sons. 9s.)—Here we have a collection of stories dealing with American well-to-do middle-class life in a sub- cynical, mildly realistic style, which does not in any genuine sense or to any genuine extent recall any English writer, though here and there we are faintly reminded of Mr. Norris when he aims at being exceptionally sarcastic. They are, on the whole, very enjoyable, and reproduce very successfully the frivolities, edged with seriousness, of Boston society, and the almost Theocritean chatter of the women who preside over it. Perhaps the best are " A Little Fool," which tells how a simple spinster on the search for a servant blunders on a husband, and " Poor Mr. Ponsonby." in which a spirited girl invents a fiancé to give her a certain amount of otherwise unattainable freedom. "The Tolstoi Club," although it drags a little at the beginning, is also very amusing, telling, as it does, how feminine curiosity, aided by sentimentalism, introduces utterly imaginary unhappiness into a perfectly happy married life. In "Three Cups of Tea" the effect of over-heard gossip upon the decision of a young woman hesitating as to whether she should accept an offer of marriage from a widower, burdened with children, is very skilfully treated. Readers of Mr. Howells may see suggestions of his peculiar humour in " Boston Neighbours," but its author, whose name, "Agnes Blake Poor," we do not remember to have seen before, is no imitator. She is certain to be heard of again, and to purpose.
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