The Maids of Paradise. By Robert W. Chambers. (A, Constable
and Co. 6s.)—Mr. Chambers makes a brilliant phan- tasmagoria of figures pass before us. It is sometimes a little difficult to follow their movements, but the effectiveness of the display is beyond all doubt. The opening scene shows the frontier in the early days of the Franco-Prussian War. Then we are taken to Paris and see something behind the scenes of the decadent Empire. After this the hero andhis companion—by this time ex-officers of the Military Police—join an American travel- ling circus, which finds that France in the autumn of 1870 is not a happy hunting-ground. And everywhere there is the sinister spectre of the Red Republic, impersonated in the figure of Sohn Buckhurst. The story, though perhaps a little overcrowded with details, is skilfully contrived and very well told. We must not forget to give the readers of the Spectator the benefit of a curious piece of information which we gather from Mr. Chambers's pages. No one who follows the profession of a Lion-King or Lion-Queen must fall in love. The beasts seem to know that he or she has ceased to have an undivided will.
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