2 JULY 1892, Page 33

manners of the day" is not pleasant reading. M. Regis

de Fagan is divorced from his wife, after a process in which there has been collusion. His daughters are allowed to see him occasionally.

He falls in love with a woman who is separated from her husband.

There are complications, suspicions, jealousies, slanders. The daughters are set against their father. Altogether, the unhappy man becomes "a victim of divorce." To draw a picture of such a sufferer is M. Daudet's object. It can hardly be said that French fiction has done much to uphold the sanctity of marriage, and this argument for it is not impressive.