The French Wife. By Katharine Tynan. (F. V. White. 6s.)—
This is a semi-political novel, in which there is much talk of a certain " Bill" which is to bring peace and happiness to the " dis- thressful counthry." What " Bill " this is remains a little obscure, —the Home-rule Bill is what first occurs to the reader ; but as the Government first goes out on the suggestion of this controversial measure, and then comes triumphantly in and passes it, the reader concludes that the Home-rule Bill is not intended. How- ever, Bill or no Bill, there is a vast quantity of good old-fashioned love-making in the story, and the end is like that of a comedy in which all the couples join hands to bow, and then depart after the fall of the curtain to arrange for their immediate marriages. No less than three couples are made happy by Katharine Tynan, who thus exercises the benevolent privileges of an author more frequently than is usual in modern novels. Some people will be disappointed at finding that the " French wife" of the title has been dead and buried years before the opening of the story ; but if she were not, no wedding-bells could ring for certain people two generations after her time, and so we should miss our three pleasant couples, a loss which all true sentimentalists would think it a thousand pities to incur.
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