Mr. Maurice Hewlett's latest volume, _Frey and His Wife_ (WARD, LOCK), suffers from the defect of being in reality a long short story puffed out to the dimensions of a short novel; and in consequence, even with large type--most grateful to the reviewing eye; Heaven forbid I should complain of that!--and a blank page between each chapter, it has considerable difficulty in filling its volume. It is a tale of antique Iceland and Norway. The first part, which is really padding and has nothing whatever to do with _Frey_ or his matrimonial affairs, treats of one _Ogmund_, who was called _Ogmund Dint_, for the very good reason that he had been literally dinted as to the skull. It was done by a gentleman named _Halward_. Everybody naturally expected _Ogmund_ to dint back; but he was something of a conscientious objector in the matter of face-to-face dinting, and being too proud for vulgar conflict he bided his time till he could cut _Halward_'s throat with the minimum of personal inconvenience. End of padding and appearance of _Frey_. There is a picture of _Frey_ on the cover by Mr. MAURICE GREIFFENHAGEN. You know already what the GREIFFENHAGEN vikings are like--high-coloured, well developed and (if I dare say it) sometimes a trifle wooden. _Frey_ indeed looked so very wooden that in my foolish ignorance I was tempted to protest. But the astonishing fact is that Frey was not only wooden in appearance, but in actuality. How then could he have for wife a slip of a sixteen-year-old maid that you may have met before in Mr HEWLETT's romances? This however is the real story, which (pardon me) I do not mean to tell. If it is no tremendous matter, it will at least please an idle hour, which will be almost time enough for you to enjoy every word of it.