The story centers around Adela Cleave, a charming woman who, after a brief marriage and an early widowhood, has won a considerable reputation as an artist in Paris. Returning to her native land to be with her father, an old and honored professor, she is at first inclined to wonder whether life will offer in her new environment so wide a scope for her interest in humanity as had been offered to her delighted senses in Paris. But she early discovers that almost without her knowing it her life is seemingly inextricably entangled with the lives of a homogeneous yet strangely diverse social structure. Her father, "Daddy Mark," as she calls him, or Professor Kay, as he is known to his colleagues, is a most lovable character, and it is many years since we have had in fiction so keenly diverting a person as Mrs. Heming, Adela Cleave's aunt, and a woman with an infinite capacity for martyrdom. The interplay of interests in a university community is alertly realized in the development of the absorbing plot, which shows the gradual growth of as sweet, and tender a love-story as has been told by any American novelist. SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY Publishers, Boston * * * * * A BULLY GOOD STORY! THE INCORRIGIBLE DUKANE By GEORGE C. SHEDD Author of "The Princess of Forge," etc. Illustrated by STANLEY L. WOOD $1.25 net; by mail, $1.37 If Jimmy Dukane hadn't been a "good fellow," he wouldn't have got into so much trouble and if he _hadn't_ been a good fellow he wouldn't have--but that's the story! He had been easily acquiring the record as Perpetual Holiday-Maker for Broadway, when--well, "James A. Dukane, Sr., had, so to speak, brought down his fist on the table with a bang. James A. Dukane, _Jr._, had been under the fist and his eyes popped open very wide indeed." Dukane and Company were in the concrete construction business and they were erecting a big dam clear out in Nevada. The elder Dukane decided that the way to solve the problem of what to do with Jimmy was to set him to work, so he sent him out to "make a report" on the dam. He--Dukane, Sr.,--then vamoosed for Europe and left young Jimmy to work out his own salvation. "The green tail-lights of the train flickered, faded, then with a sudden mischievous wink altogether disappeared; the last puffing of the engine was like a hoarse chuckle. "'Dumped in a puddle at eleven o'clock at night', Jimmy Dukane vociferated resentfully. "In the caravan just departed there was everything to comfort the soul, to cheer the mind and moisten the palate--bright lights, snug chairs, jolly companions, a well-stocked buffet. Here?--what the deuce was here anyway except water? He faced about. A few miserable beams of light escaped through the dingy depot window out upon the wet platform and gleamed glassily along the rails; some distance away in front of him glowed half a dozen misty, luminous balls like swamp-lanterns, which he surmised to be windows.