Frederick Lonton. By W. D. Croft. (Longman.s and Co. 7s.
6d.)-Frederick Lenten is a sentimental novel of a good deal of charm. It begins like a detective story-with a sudden- death: An artist is wandering idly down a street in Chelsea, after dark. Suddenly a thrown back curtain reveals a lighted room and a man standing in the centre of the picture against a background of a laid table and a bookcase. A moment later comes a clatter of broken glass. The man in the room has seized up a chair and thrown it through the window : " The chair and glass fell into the area with a crash, and a woman's scream came up from the base- ment." Presently the house is seen to be on fire, the chair- thrower, who is Frederick Lonton, attempts to save the woman who screamed, and finding she is dead runs out of the house and away for fear of a false accusation. The story of his hiding from justice, or rather, from injustice, by masquer- ading as an unskilled labourer takes up most of the book. The reader is soon allowed to forget that he has anything to hide and is interested solely in a working man and his family, with whom the hero lodges. Never for a moment does the reader feel that these poor people are real. They seem to be masquerading like FrederickLonton, but how delightfully they all play their sentimental parts ! It is impossible not to love them. Equally impossible is it not to be on terms of friendship with the old solicitor and the old judge, the musician, the boarding-house keeper and the pretty girl to whom we are later on introduced. They also are far more pleaSing than convincing, but if they are not real they are not dull, and those who read novels for a pastime, and for that only, should be sure to read this one.
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