Lessons. By Evelyn Sharp. (R. Brimloy Johnson. 2s. 6d. net.)
—These little sketches of a governess's experiences with various sets of pupils are entertaining, if only in showing how effectually sharp children can get through the most admirably contrived armour of experience. But we must confess to some scepticism as to the reality, the probability, of such monsters as " Jim" and "Lal" ; their command of language, their purity of phrase, is too complete. By far the best thing in the book is the story of "Isabella the First," the stupid girl whose blunders restore the confidence of the nervous teacher ; and the sequel, " Isabella the Second," the same girl five years older and married, with her maternal conceit and married contempt for the spinster governess. The early attempts, during her old teacher's calls, to ignore the former relationship, their final futility, and the resumption of the old footing, are very naturally rendered. The author is at her best hero.
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