IT is not often that one finds a book written purely and frankly with no ulterior motive but to give pleasure to the reader. It is the fashion with contemporary novelists to try to draw a picture of life as they see it, and for the most part they see it--darkly. For the most part, as a result, while their stories may be interesting for any one of a number of reasons, they are not always pleasant.

In "Love and the Ladies," Mrs. Abbott has refused to mix black or even brown among the paints on her palette. The six short stories which make up the volume are woven of the golden mist of day dreams, and the silken threads of a playful imagination. The characters are frankly of the sort that never were on land nor sea but only in the mind of one who is willing at least occasionally to think of how pleasant things might be.

There is, it is practically safe to say, no one who at certain times is not willing to leav the rock bottom of daily life for an excursion among the clouds. For such a one at such a time "Love and the Ladies." All that is necessary is that one surrender himself to Mrs. Abbott's imagination and timid, flowing style, and he will without doubt spend a few most delicious and restful hours