The Dragon Painter. By Sidney McCall. (Stanley Paul and Co.
6s.)—This is a story of modern Japan which is tuned to a key foreign to Western ears. There is a great deal of wild romance about it, but the mystery of ITme-ko's disappearance will not be so dark to the reader as to her unfortunate husband. The pictures of life in a Japanese family have an air of genuineness, though we have no means of knowing whether the details are correct. There is a delightful scene in which Tatsu, the "dragon painter," a wild untutored genius from the hills, tries to see his lady-love, and encounters only Meta, her old servant, who is aghast at such a breach of etiquette :—
"For a while he raged like a flame upon the door step, but he was no match for his vigorous opponent. It was something to realize his own defeat. Gasping, he turned to the friendly rain and would have darted from the gate when, with a swoop like a falcon, Mats. was bodily upon him. t'He threw his right arm upward as if to escape a blow, but the old dame did not belabour him. She was trying to thrust something hard and strange into his other hand. He glanced toward it. The last indignity of an umbrella. 'Open it, madman,' she cried shrilly after him, 'and hold your robe up; it is one of your new silk ones.'
The scenery of Japan is picturesquely painted, and the atmo- spheric effects are described in such vivid In mage that they can easily be realised by the English reader.
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