o the fact that you
have only to ask a grannie and get what you want, or to the equal truism
that grandmotherly devotion is often accepted as a matter of course.
However it doesn't really matter. The important thing is that the public
have asked Mrs. WEMYSS for "another of the same," and the request has
been appropriately "granted."

* * * * *

I happen to have incontrovertible proof (of the external kind) that the
one and only Mr. G. K. CHESTERTON is the author of _The Flying Inn_
(METHUEN). Otherwise I should have judged, by internal evidence, that it
was the work of an inferior writer of the same name as himself, and,
curiously enough, the same initials. Though hesitating to encourage
litigation I should have been inclined to recommend Mr. CHESTERTON to
apply as soon as possible for an injunction to restrain this person from
doing anything further to damage the real G. K. C.'s reputation. I
should have hinted that every now and then I had come upon a passage
which might well be the work of the author of _Heretics and Tremendous
Trifles_, and that only the intolerable dulness of the book as a whole
persuaded me that it had been written by another hand. It deals with the
adventures of _Lord Ivywood_ and _Captain Dalroy_, men of opposite views
on the subject of temperance. _Lord Ivywood_, having by some mysterious
means (not explained) acquired despotic power in England, issued an
edict that all inns should be abolished. At the same time he decreed
that alcoholic liquor might be sold wherever an inn-sign stood. _Captain
Dalroy_ accordingly stole the sign of "The Old Ship," and carried it
about with him, setting it up wherever his fancy dictated. And that, on
my honour as a Learned Clerk, is the whole plot of a fat,
closely-printed book of more than three hundred pages. I hope I have a
fairly catholic appreciation of humour; certainly, I can enjoy most
things, from MEREDITH to the American coloured comic supplement; but
_The Flying Inn_ was too much for me. It cannot have been easy to write,
even given useful characters like _Lord Ivywood_ and _Captain Dalroy_,
whose remarks can be made to run into three or four pages; but it is
considerably harder to read. There are good things in it, just as there
is gold (I understand) in sea-water, but the process of extraction is
tedious.

* * * * *

Miss UNA SILBERRAD's novels are invariably good, and _Cuddy Yarborou