The author of _Helen of Four Gates_ (JENKINS) has chosen to hide her identity and call herself simply "An Ex-Mill Girl." I am sufficiently sorry for this to hope that, if the story meets with the success that I should certainly predict for it, a lady of such unusual gifts may allow us to know her name. Of these gifts I have no doubt whatever. As a tale _Helen of Four Gates_ is crude, unnatural, melodramatic; but the power (brutality, if you prefer) of its telling takes away the critical breath. Whether in real life anyone could have nursed a lifelong hatred as old _Mason_ did (personally I cherish the belief that hatred is too evanescent an emotion for a life-tenancy of the human mind; but I may be wrong); whether he would have bribed a casual tramp to marry and torment the reputed daughter who was the object of his loathing, or whether _Day_ and _Helen_ herself would actually so have played into his hands, are all rather questionable problems. Far more real, human and moving is the wild passion of _Helen_ for _Martin_, whom (again questionably as to truth) her enemies frighten away from her. A grim story, you begin to observe, but one altogether worth reading. To compare things small (as yet) with great, I might call it a lineal descendant of _Wuthering Heights_, both in setting and treatment. There is indeed more than a hint of the BRONTE touch about the Ex-Mill Girl. For that and other things I send her (whoever she is) my felicitations and good wishes. * * * * *