8 AUGUST 1885, Page 24

In Partnership : Studies in Story-Telling. By Brander Matthews and

H. C. Banner. (David Douglas.)—The first of these stories is told in letters and telegrams, and perhaps reads better in that form than in any other that could have been given to it. The incident of a long-lost daughter of a wealthy house turning up in the person of a music-hall singer is made as much of in this way as the case admitted. "The Venetian Glass" is a tale somewhat in Poe's manner, but scarcely successful. One wants at least the suggestion of an explanation in a mystery of this kind. "Love in Old Clothes" is an ingenious essay in style, and "Dear Jones and Baby Van Rensselaer" a pleasing love-story. On the whole, this is a pleasant, readable volume.