Miss Smedley’s latest novel displays her usual skill in the presentation of character; and her characters do not stand still, but grow as we watch them. Her two leading characters in this book are a boy and girl, both of whom are lonely, misunderstood, and, to some extent, unwanted; and in each case the experiences of childhood create a determining bias. Their development of strength and courage not only helps them mutually, but finally brings the three people who are the dominating influences of their lives into happier conditions. The book is planned on a large scale, covers a wide range of social life, and deals with explorers, business gamblers, and men and women of large ambitions. Families Repaired BY J. S. FLETCHER Mr. J. S. Fletcher’s new novel is of the same _genre_ as the author’s well-known humorous stories, “The Paths of the Prudent” and “Grand Relations,” both of which have gone through several editions. It deals with a highly complicated matrimonial arrangement, proposed by an Anglo-Canadian multi-millionaire as the means of repairing the fortunes of two noble families which have fallen upon bad times, and the plot involves numerous amusing and piquant situations and quaint embarrassments. The various characters are drawn with great fidelity, especially those of an old bachelor about town, a couple of young ladies of high rank, who live their own very modernized lives in a Camden Town flat, and an Irish-American widow of a lively and original type. The story is full of smart and bright dialogue, and though it is essentially one of farcical humour, the plot is exciting and even sensational. The Farm Servant BY E. H. ANSTRUTHER The central theme of this remarkable first novel is the passionate love-story of Anna Murrell, “The Farm Servant.” But the study of Frank Harding and the manner in which his life was affected by three women is of equal importance. Few modern novels have been so varied in setting, for the two largest sections of the book deal with a quiet village in East Anglia and with the Latin Quarter of Paris just before the War. It is a book with passages of great tragic power; but these are interspersed with chapters delightful for their quiet humour and acute observations of the little “actions and reactions” of everyday life. It is a long book: but only in a long book could the author, besides working out the main theme, have created such a host of minor characters. Mr. Harding, the Carringtons, the Juleses, Dr. Emmersley, Lucie Dubels, and a dozen others are all as real as the people one meets every day. The Long Divorce (John Bogardus) BY GEORGE A. CHAMBERLAIN Author of “Through Stained Glass,” “Home,” etc.