novel is one which may legitimately be used in fiction.
If the question of the international traffic in children is to be discussed, it had better be treated with severe solemnity.
But at least it may be said in favour of his work that it is free from any hysteria or sentimentality. As regards the actual construction of the book, the writer has wasted a good
deal of labour in the setting up of his scenery and the clothing
of his characters : he continually leads us up to a situation which proves after all to be an anticlimax. We are, indeed,
thoroughly weary of Baverstook's pastimes and Lucilla's irritating want of courtesy by the time the murder is com- mitted, and the real story is unfolded backwards, in second- hand narrative. It would surely have been easy for Mr. Begbie to establish in a few pages the necessary characteristics of his men and women. As types they are interesting enough, and their lank of verisimilitude need not condemn them in a novel which is half a morality play. The "healthy," self-satisfied Englishman, the fanatical penitent, the gentle hypocrite, are strongly contrasted, yet drawn with some subtlety; at all events, they are quite adequate for Air. Begbie's moral purpose.
Previous page
