The Potter and the May. By Maud Howard Peterson. (Hodder
and Stoughton. 6s.)—The story opens in America with the narrow escape from drowning of three children, two boys and a girl, who grow up into the principal characters. The girl is an American, and very charming in a subtler, sweeter way than that of Mr. Dana Gibson's young women. Of the two Scotch boys, one, John Stewart, becomes a somewhat stern character, having,. ho wever, the gentleness of strength, while the other, Bob Trevelyan, is a wild, stormy creature, who found his path beset with "pitfall and with gin," but who after failure completes his. imperfect life by a brave death. The two boys were devoted to the girl, Cary,when they were all children, and when they see her again after she is grown up they both fall in love with her. Trevelyan is the first to tell her of it, but his vehemence frightens her, for though she is fond of him she does not love him. She says: "If I loved you as I should—and as I could. love a man—I would say 'Yes '—as it is I must say 'No." Stewart is the man, though they none of them find it.
• out till later. Part of the story takes place in India, where Trevelyan and Stewart, who are soldiers, are on duty, where the former is tried and found wanting, and where he after- wards redeems himself. The writing is simple and straight- forward, and the descriptions of Trevelyan's old house in the Highlands, of the seashore near Aberdeen where he last sees Cary, and the fog and rising tide in the midst of which she and Stewart find out their love for each other, are well done. The minor characters, too, are distinctly drawn, and altogether the book is well worth reading.
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