FICTION.
LOVE AT PADDINGTON.*
MR. PETT RIDGE has got rather off the lines in his latest story, and it will be the concern of every reader who knows the genuineness of his Cockney sketches to beg him to get buck on to right lines as soon as possible. There is Cockneyism here, and some good instances of the priceless
irony of Cockney repartee, but not a single character is wrought carefully, or, as one might say, in view of Mr. Pett
Ridge's attitude to the populace of London, affectionately. Mr. Pett Ridge has chosen to attempt a contrast between the life of a London shop-girl and that of a county family in Berkshire, with the unhappy result that he does not give himself time in this short novel to paint a satis-- factory portrait of either side. No doubt he makes
the shop-girl duly uncomfortable when she stays in the country house in Berkshire, but the devicerhe employs make
the reader uncomfortable, too, and it is evident that Mr. Pett Ridge is in this matter also extremely uncomfortable himself. We take an example. Gertie (the shop-girl) is conversing with Lady Douglass, sister-in-law of Henry Douglass, an
honest young man who wants to marry Gertie. The only other facts necessary for the appreciation of the passage we quote are that Gertie, when in the company of her friend, Mr. Trew, an omnibus driver, had once met Lady Douglass at
the Zoo, and that Genie's father had been in prison at Worm- wood Scrubs.
"'Tell me !' begged Lady Douglass; 'how is that eccentric old gentleman we met at the Zoological Gardens—Crew, or Brew, or some astonishing name of the kind ? " I don't suppose,' answered the girl defensively, that you really want to know how he is, but Mr. Trew is quite well, and he isn't in the least eccentric, and he doesn't profess to be a gentleman.' Henry touched her shoulder with a gesture of appeal ; she gave an impatient movement. 'But how extremely interesting,' cried Lady Douglass, with something like rapture. ' And do most of your friends work for a living ? ' All of 'em. I don't care for loafers."I myself have been up• to my eyebrows in industry this week,' said the other, self-com.- miseratingly. I sometimes wish charity could be abolished altogether. It does entail such an enormous amount of hard labour. One might as well be in Wormwood Scrubs.' She' paused and looked at the girl intently. By the by, where is. Wormwood Scrubs P One often hears of it." Over beyond Shepherd's Bush.' Have you ever been there ? "No,' answered. Gertie ; and I've never been to Portland, and I'm not acquainted with Dartmoor, and I don't know much about Newgate. Why do you ask ? " I am hugely interested in prison life,' declared the other."
There are innumerable points of contact, and, above all, points where contact fails, between the two classes that would be interesting to examine. But the wholly incredible vulgarity of Lady Douglass not merely steers wide of them all, but annoys the reader by its provocative unreality. This is not worthy of Mr. Pett Ridge at all.
The character of Mr. Trew suggests an excellent field of study for Mr. Pett Ridge. The period of this story is when motor omnibuses were beginning to appear in the streets. Has any one ever done full justice to the driver of the old horse omnibus? Almost every Londoner can give you specimens of his withering sarcasm, the genial brutality of his personal remarks, the rare ferocity of his invective-. He is already an almost extinct being, but be is fit subject for legend and literature. Here Mr. Pitt Ridge only touches.
• Late at Paddington. By W. Pat Ridge. London and Edinburgh : Thomas Nelson and Sons. ps. net. the fringe of the subject. We suggest that he should collect such sayings of London drivers as are still current to guide him in the development of the character. Let some of the retorts, comments, and episodes be true—so much the better. This stage of the life of London streets deserves to be enshrined. And why should Mr. Pett Ridge take him outside the four-mile radius P That is where the old omnibus driver lased to be at the top of his bent, and where he was most truly himself and most justly admired. We certainly do not wish to see him made miserable, and making others miserable, in a country house.
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