My French Friends. By Constance Elizabeth Maud. (Smith,. Elder, and
Co. 6s.)—My Preach Friends is a further collection of sketches by the author of "An English Girl in Paris." Even though the second series of a book of this sort may be intrinsi- cally as good as the first, the experiment of publishing it is a hazardous one. Charm and freshness are very evanescent, qualities, and unless this kind of literary soufflé is both charming and fresh it runs a great risk of being tedious. Miss Maud is letting the peculiar style she affected in her former book (an abso- lutely literal translation from the French of every idiom) become a little exaggerated, and a hint of exaggeration in a matter like this produces weariness in the reader. Nevertheless, some of these studies are very amusing, notably the story about the duel,, in which everything is of course saved, including honour. The reader will be led to a certain pity for the author by the account, of the French family dinner. It is obvious from her strictures on English conversation and manners that in England she must make one of a very dull and quarrelsome cirele. She will perhaps be surprised to hear that interesting subjects are very often dis- cussed at the English family dinner-table, and discussed without " personalities " being resorted to in the course of the argument. Entertaining as parts of this book undoubtedly are, we cannot help. hoping that we have seen the last of the French friends, and that a further instalment of these sketches will not be served up to us after another interval of two years. They are too like the macaroons in one of Mrs. Gaskell's clever little essays :—the first. was delightful, the second is bearable, the third would be in- tolerable.
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