Pre Lippo Lippi, By Margaret Vero Farrington. (G. P. Put-
nam's Sons.)—This is a romance of Italy, passion, painting, and at least a suspicion of poisoning, notable mainly for the beauty of its typography and the excellent quality of its photogravure illustrations. A Carmelite monk, in the course of his artistic work, falls in and in love with Lucrezia Buti, who is, or ought to be, a religieuse. The result is an elopement, followed by a union—of a sort—full of ecstatic happiness, but yet not without its draw- backs. More particularly Era Lippo forgets that he is passionately loved by a beautiful, jealous, and vindictive princess, who, when she discovers what has taken place, sets to work to do as much harm as possible to the "united" lovers, and finally seems to have succeeded in "removing" one of them—which, the reader must find out. The lovers are well drawn, and so is Lippe's) chief friend, Fr it Diamante. The best scenes in the book, however, are those which are mainly concerned with religious art.
"Aquarius," the well-known writer on whist and kindred games, has issued two neat little books (Frederick C. Math ieson and Sons) on Spanish, Italian, and Oriental games at cards. They will not be thoroughly understood except by the initiated ; but even the novice can see that "Aquarius" knows what ho has to say, and can say it pointedly. He considers that "the coolness, courtesy, and skill of the Spaniard at card-playing" renders him, under certain circumstances, superior to the players of other nations. That, at least, is beyond dispute.
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