Sinners Twain. By John Mackie. (T. Fisher Unwin.)—Mr. Mackie terms
his new story, which is hardly so powerful as " The Devil's Playground," a romance of "the great lone land." Cer- tainly he contrives to invest the Canadian North-West, to which he gives this name, with the feeling of eerie solitude. It is not easy, however, to see the propriety of the title, Sinners Twain, which he has given to his book. Such a description can hardly be applied to Marie St. Denis, the charming and courageous daughter of the man who, contrary to law, imports liquor into Canada, or to the sergeant of the North-West mounted police, who loves her and saves her at the cost of his own official degrada- tion. It is quite unnecessary, however, to dwell upon Mr. Mackie's title. He has written a very delightful book, and has proved that within certain limits he can describe character admirably. There is not much love-making in the book—perhaps because Marie's sergeant, Harry Yorke, is in every respect a gentleman—but what there is, is idyllic in the true, and not in the hackneyed, sense of the word. There is not in Sinners Twain the play of passion that rendered "The Devil's Playground" so remarkable. But it is quite as great a success.
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