[In Wintle's Wonders] Miss Streatfeild has given us another gay and lively work peopled by a centre group of vivid personalities, while her intense interest in her subject gives detail and depth to the whole scene. Mrs. Wintle has a dancing school whose "Wonders" feed the choruses of popular shows and pantomimes…. Some of the characters are shadowy, some are caricatures by their exaggerated unpleasantness, but upon Rachel and Hilary, Uncle Tom, Mrs. Storm the governess, and Mrs. Purser the wardrobe mistress, Miss Streatfeild has lavished an intense sympathy and deep understanding so that the reader gains a real experience and something of the author's own insight into and perception of human nature. Miss Streatfeild seems here, however, to have patience with only her more likable characters. The villains of the piece are nearly always quite black and they are harsh and vague and less real because of...