APPLE SAUCE, by Ina Michael (Brentano's, 7s. 6d.) is an
affair of headlong vigour and ingenuous crudity. Mildred APPLE SAUCE, by Ina Michael (Brentano's, 7s. 6d.) is an affair of headlong vigour and ingenuous crudity. Mildred Petworthy, on the advice of her young half-sister, rejuvenates her fashions both of dress and of opinion. Although married for some time to a worthy brewer, she has never been really in love. Now, during a visit to Corsica, she responds to the love- making of her half-brother's handsome young friend, Charles Gunning, who is experimenting in emotions. Charles soon wearies of his dangerous love-affair, but the impassioned Mildred cannot let him go. She pursues him even to San Francisco, where he has developed a " sweet pure love " for an American girl ; and it is only with great difficulty that she is persuaded to relinquish her desire for revenge. The theme is not new ; and there is no subtlety in the management of it. Mildred's entire unreason, peevishness, and incredible tactless- ness alienate sympathy, while Charles merely seems an ordinary selfish young cad. Why he is credited with an " artistic " temperament remains inexplicable. Several other characters perform their antics apparently for our amusement, and we have glimpses of Corsica in a guide-book style. The redeeming points of the book, from a literary point of view, are one or two passages of grim realism, and some ingeniously contrived situations. Charles' desperate restaurant dinner in San Francisco has a certain farcical humour.
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