THIS WEEK'S BOOKS
M.R. AriBADE MINNIGERODE has written seven scintillating and informal biographies of Some Amerkan Ladies (Putnam, 15s.) —all except one the wives of Presidents. The article on Martha Washington is perhaps the best, telling us much of that stately, comfortable society of pre-revolution Virginia, of Williamsburg with its well-shaded streets laid out in the form of W and M in honour of its royal patrons, of the great Colonial houses that still wear the mantle of their magnificence, and of the lives of their inhabitants, modelled closely after the fashion of London and Bath. Washington's heart is 'shrouded in a reserve that commands respect and silences .criticism ; that his wife was not his first and greatest love, yet that he made her happy, is in keeping with his character. His secret we shall never pierce, but the fact of it makes us admire him the more.
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