Books: Backwash

EXPIATION —Elizabeth—Doubleday, Doran ($2.50).

Of all the wives of all the brothers Bott, Ernest's Milly was the only soft, plump, docile one. The other brothers pondered their wives' angles and acerbities, secretly envied Ernest. When he died leaving his fortune to the "Home for Fallen Women" and adding a codicil, "My wife will know why," the Bott brothers were incredulous, their wives smugly pleased.

Poor docile Milly was distraught. Ten years before she had started sinning, but for nine of the ten she had been so accustomed to her comfortable afternoon-a-week with Arthur...

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