Mrs. Drummond's Vocation. By Mark Ryce. (W. Heinemann. 6s.)—The author
of this novel thinks it necessary to give what is in effect a warning to the reader that it is not intended for the "young person." But although this is true the book, in spite of the disagreeableness of part of it, is far less objec- tionable than many works of modern fiction which pretend to uphold a standard of conventional morality. The heroine, Lily Drummond, possesses what is in effect a complete absence of character, that is, she entirely takes her colour from the people with whom she lives. For a considerable number of years she is a most excellent wife to a Chinese missionary, but after his death she succumbs at the first breath of temptation, and becomes the mistress of a Russian prince. The two halves of the book are finely contrasted, and the last portion, in which Lily returns to her husband's people at Clapham and almost contracts a most respect- able alliance there, is particularly convincing to the reader. In the end, however, it is to be supposed that the charms of a life of luxury outweigh her affection for a little girl called Cuckoo, which has nearly induced her to marry the child's excellent father. The book is well written, and the various phases of life depicted in it are most vividly portrayed. The reader will feel that Lily is a real person, though he will regret as much as does the author in the preface that she wen not possessed of an entirely different character.
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