Nine of Hearts. By Ethel Colburn Mayne. (Constable. 6s.) It
seems to have been the obvious thing for reviewers to talk of Miss Mayne in connexion with Katherine Mansfield. The two writers have one thing in common : a deep insight into the minds of women and children. But their methods of working are totally different. Katherine Mansfield accumu- lated minutiae—points of light that lit her canvas as-the stars irradiate the frosty winter sky. The result was that her work, to our mind, resembled that of the pointilliste painters who followed the first Impressionists. Miss Mayne lays her " scheme " more deliberately ; working threads into the warp and weft with cunning hands ; and the result is stories of exquisite and perfect design. She does not give high lights or splashes of colour, but purposely quietens all down to the serene silver sweetness which, we think, must be the hue of her own personality. Beyond all our power of praise she has the charm of grace. We cannot help feeling that her style has been brought to its state of perfection by the limpid and disciplined spirit of pity which is the moving power behind her work.
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