Short Shipments. By Elinor Mordaunt. (Hutchinson. 7s. 6d. net.)—Miss Elinor
Mordaunt writes with a powerful and masculine touch, which invests all her work with interest. Though there is something of mysticism, there is little of psychology in these stories, which are mostly sketches of the extraordinary events which happen in the comparatively unknown world of the East End of London. Certain of the • The MeBrides : a Romance al Arran. By John Sillars. Edinburgh Blackwood /7s. ed. net.] sketates are concerned with other classes of society. One, "Thee Skipper's" Yarn," is rather a brutal story of the sea, while " The Fountain," the first in the book, is a mystical study of a country house and its inhabitants ; and another, perhaps the most horrifying, is concerned with two children in Somersetshire. But the majority of the stories take place east of Temple Bar, and, as is rather the fashion in the present day, a portrait of an inscrutable Chinaman is introduced into many of them. " A Rider in the King's Carriage " and " The Man Who Kept Birds " are concerned with English criminals, and, although they are exciting reading, they have not the sinister note of " The Yellow Cat " and " The, Honour of His House.". People with strong nerves may pass an exciting couple of hours over the volume. The reader is often ashamed of finding melodramatic stories so absorbing, but Miss Mordaunt's work appeals to the intellect. Not only are her plots well constructed, but the character drawing is admirable.
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