The times., 1899-05-21
Minor Fiction.

"a Double Thread" by Ellen Thor
| neycroft Fowler, is a story which re-
minds one of Rhinestone tiara. 1t spar
| it. The object of the author appears to
have been TO make her characters say as
| many smart things as possible. They talk
| epigrams, they write epigrams. they think
| epigrams; they fairly radiate epigrams.
| One sees in this romance a number of
| highly cultivated and more or less titled
persons, all moving through the best Lon
| don society and leaving brilliant sayings
| behind them as a bride and groom shed
| rice when they are rid of the wedding
guests. The plot is an old one-merely
| the story of London young lady of
wealth and fashion who, in order to test
| her lovers affection, impersonates for a
part of her time her twin sister, from
whom she has been separated in infancy.
| She tells her lover this twin is earning her
| own living in poverty and pTivation. and
the lover meets the supposed sister in the
country and makes love to her, while ut
| terly refusing to be attracted by the rich
| and cynical young lady whom he meets
when he goes back 10 town. The lover is
| about the only person in the whole book
who does not light up the room with the
| dazzling results of his intellect wherever
| he is; and We are expressly informed that
| he is stupid He would need TO be, tosfall
| into SO transparent a trap. Miss Fowler
| is so anxious for brilliancy, apparently,
that she does thing not heretofore done
| in fiction; she causes her heroines TO have
| twinkling eyes. For some reason or 9TH
er, the eyes of heroines in novels rarely
| twinkle. They flash, or they glow, or they
are dimmed with tears, or they melt
thought of late they have rather given
over melting-but they do not twinkle.
The heroine of a novel is rarely of the SOU
brette type Of humanity. Elfrida Har-
/ land is not soubrette, but she does some
very kittenish things. (New York: d.
Appleton & Co. sl.50J
"Tiverton Tales" by Alice Brown, is one
Of the most charming story books of the
season. 1t will be remembered that the
author gave to the world two or three
years ago Meadow Grass book odor-
Gus with the nameiess, numberless fra
grances OF quiet country neighborhood.
There is the sweet wholesomeness OF Sarah
orne Jewett in these tales, with a certain
quaint and spicy flavor that Miss Jewett
lacks. AS records of a life fast slipping
away, these stories OF country life in the
out of the-way corners of our country are
almost priceless. Who would not delight
IN stories oil the peasant lie oil the days OF
Shakespeare? Who would not care TO know
what the country folk really thought and
felt and talked about in the neighborhood
of Anne Hathaway's cottage? This is the
sort of history which is now in the MAX
ing in the work of the dialect writer's, and
though this particular writer is not de
voted to dialect she can use it very deity.
The prettiest of the stories, perhaps. is
THE Flat-Iron Lot" which is like a whiff
of lavender from an old Mayflower chest
Ii is a bit OF the history OF an old clock
mender and antiquarian, who dwelt in one
of the historic towns of New England. and
OF the celebration which the town held on
the occasion of its two hundred and fiftieth
anniversary. The part which the old clock
mender took in this was both unexpected
and dramatic and in the description of his
speech TO his townspeople from the great
rock on the "Flat-lrOn Lot there Is a fire
and fervOr and poetic feeling which the
author seems TO save for great occasions
Like her own people, about whom she
writes, she shows certain shy reticence in
her work. She does not rise to the heights
of enthusiasm for every little thing. 1t is
only when all the depths are stirred that
she uses rhetoric. ''Tiverton Tales" sur
passes Meadow Grass in this one story
at least; and it is to be hoped that more
of these unostentatious little books will
appear in the future. (Boston: Houghton,
Mifiiin & Co. S1.50)