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* * * * *
OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.
(_BY MR. PUNCH'S STAFF OF LEARNED CLERKS._)
_The Candid Courtship_ (LANE) is a story full of good talk; by which I
do not at all mean brilliant epigram and verbal fireworks, but direct
and genuine conversation, just so far manipulated by the author that
it advances the business in hand without becoming artificial. I must
add, however, that Miss MADGE MEARS occasionally displays the defects
of her qualities, to the extent of sacrificing syntax to ease, even
in passages of pure narrative, with results that might offend the
precisionist. But after all it is what she has to say that matters
most; and the story of _The Candid Courtship_ will hold you amused
and curious to the end. I will not spoil it by re-telling, save to
indicate that (as the title implies) it is about a suitor who, in
proposing to the girl of his choice, confessed to her that he had a
past. Not a very lurid past, but quite bad enough for the G.O.H.C.,
who happened to entertain strong views on sex-equality. So, as vulgar
persons say, the fat was in the fire--more especially when the lady
of the past turned up again, not past at all, but very pleasantly
intriguing with another, and that other own brother to the girl
herself. A pretty complication, and leading up to an admirable scene
of tragi-comedy over a double elopement and a pursuit, which you must
certainly read.
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