The Ballet Dancer, and On Guard

266 pp. Two books in one volume. "Translated from the Italian, Matilde Serao tells the story of the simple tragedies of two Italian women. Pictures as sad and as hopeless as they are exquisite. The external plots of both, "The Ballet Dancer" and "On Guard" are simple in the extreme. The psychological problems of each one, especially of the first, is intricate. It is rather interesting to note that the heroines of both are the gray, joyless type of women, timid and shrinking, that we associate rather with northern countries than the south of Italy. The soul of the story is Carmela's love for a man whom she does not know, who has looked at her but once or twice, and then with scorn."