A Question : the Idyll of a Picture. By Georg
Ebers. Translated from the German by Mary I. Safford. (W. S. Gottsberger, New York.)—Herr Ebers has interpreted in words a picture by Alma Tadema. Xanthe, the daughter of Lysander of Syracuse, loves her cousin Phaon, the eon of Protarehus, the playmate of her childhood. But she has been taught to think ill of him. The youth seems dull and heavy. It is whispered that he spends hi's nights in revelry. The old housekeeper, too, who has usurped the rule of the house, for Lysander is au invalid, wishes to secure the girl for Lormax, another cousin, the son of her favourite among the three seas of Dionysius, Alciphoron. But all turns out well. Phaon, it seems, has spent his nights not with ill companions in Syracuse, but in visit- ing Lysander's olives. Leonax, too, though dutifully coming to woo Xanthe at her father's bidding, has his heart engaged elsewhere. All this is very prettily told. We only want the picture to enjoy it thoroughly. The picture is in the Royal collection at Munich.
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