The Massage Case. By Cyril Bennett. 3 vols. (T. Fisher
Unwin ) —The author of this novel seems to have some grievances which he or she (let ns say, by preference, " she") has to air, aversions which she wishes to denounce, and experiences which she wishes to utilise. The heroine, who tells her own story, relates how her case was mis- taken by a celebrated physician; how she was ill-treated in a nursing:- home, and subjected to a very disagreeable treatment of tabbing,— or, rather, braising ; and how she was delivered by the intervention of a physician more skilful or more sympathetic. In company of this gentleman and his sister (it conveniently happens that be wants a holiday after a spell of excessively hard work) she goes to Egypt. Here we see the experience of foreign travel coming handily in. The tour conveniently coincides with the fall of Khartoum, and of course we have a denunciation of the Government which allowed Gordon to perish. It is obviously easy to interweave a love-story with the plot of which we have just given a sketch. A cousin whom the heroine in the days of her trouble had too hastily accepted, proves con- veniently fickle. The sympathetic physician is at band to fill the vacant place. So all ends well, and the painful experiences of the past are regarded as the necessary antecedents to the happiness of the present. The best part of the story is the description of the nursing-home. Here we are sometimes reminded of Charles Reade. There are one or two touchee in it—that, for instance, of the Jewish extraction of the principal—which make us fancy that it is a sketch from life.
Previous page
