ctacle of America girding herself for war is the sight
of our great Ally passing through all those phases of initiation that
to us are now remote memories. Such a phase is the coming of the
first war-books, exemplified for me by the appearance of _From the
Fire Step_ (PUTNAMS). As his sub-title indicates--_Experiences of an
American Soldier in the British Army_--the writer, Mr. ARTHUR GUY
EMPEY, has proved himself something of a pioneer. In a singularly
vivacious opening chapter he tells how, after waiting with decreasing
expectation during the months that followed the _Lusitania_ crime, he
decided to be a law unto himself, and came alone to offer his personal
service in the cause of freedom. You will hardly read unmoved (by
laughter as much as by sympathy) his story of how this offer was at
first refused, then accepted. Throughout indeed you must prepare to
find Mr. EMPEY an entirely independent, though generous, critic of
our men and methods; it is precisely this attitude that gives his
book its chief interest as a survey of all-too-familiar things from
a refreshingly new angle. I hardly suppose there will be anything in
the actual matter, from church parade to gas-attacks, which readers
on this side will not by now have seen or heard about, times beyond
number; but one can imagine sympathetically with what concern it
will all be received in the homes oversea; and after turning its
high-spirited and encouraging pages can warmly echo the admonition of
their writer: "Pacifists and small-army people please read with care!"

* * * * *

Since there is probably no writer who can approach Mrs. FLORA ANNIE
STEEL in the art of telling Indian tales about Indian people, one is
specially happy to find her in _Mistress of Men_ (HEINEMANN) with
her foot once more upon her special terrain. Not for the first time,
I think, she has gone to the records of the House of AKBAR for her
material; the result here is hardly to be called a novel so much as
amplified history, since it is really the life story of an actual
(and wonderful) woman, NURJAHAN THE BEAUTIFUL, wife of the Emperor
JAHANGIR. Naturally the writer has experienced not only the great
advantages but the hazards of such a building upon fact. To explain
the marriage of your heroine with the Imperial lover by whose orders
her first husband was killed, and not to lessen sympathy for her in
the process, is a problem to test the skill of any novelist.