Even the inevitable flight to London is not spared us or the
heroine, and it is really only when the writer tires of his attempted
conventionality that he comes more nearly to his own. The return of
_Violet_ to her old home, for instance, is most fortunate in its failure to
follow the rules, that attractive young lady being quite content to be
whisked back in the turning of a page from destitution in Lambeth to the
place she loves, without knowing or caring at all how the miracle has been
wrought; while we, reader and author alike, equally in the dark, are too
happy to have her home to worry about it either, preferring to wander with
her through the dear old rooms and let explanations go hang. Anyhow,
perhaps one can forgive a certain amount of looseness in a story that holds
such pleasant things as a family rainbow, an "osier ait" and a sailor-poet
worshipping from afar. And indeed, though far from brilliant, the book is
really rather lovable.
* * * * *
In _The Leatherwood God_ (JENKINS) Mr. W.D. HOWELLS has written a powerful
and very interesting study of an unusual theme.
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