* *

In _A Tale That Is Told_ (COLLINS), Mr. FREDERICK NIVEN throws himself
into the personality of _Harold Grey_, who is the youngest son of an
"eminent Scottish divine," and constitutes himself the annalist of
the family, its private affairs and its professional business in the
commerce of literature and art. The right of the family to its annals,
notwithstanding that its members are little involved in furious
adventures or thrilling romance, is established at once by the very
remarkable character of the _Reverend Thomas Grey_. The duty upon you
to read them depends, as the prologue hints, upon whether you are
greatly interested in life and not exclusively intent on fiction. When
I realised that I must expect no more than an account, without climax,
of years spent as a tale that is told, I accepted the conditions
subject to certain terms of my own. The family must be an interesting
one and not too ordinary; the sons, _Thomas_ (whose creed was "Give
yourself," and whose application of it was such that it usually
wrecked the person to whom the gift was made), _Dick_ the artist, and
_John_ the novelist, must be very much alive; if the big adventures
were missing the little problems must be faced; the question of sex
must not be overlooked; and of humour none of the characters must be
devoid, and the historian himself must be full. Mr. NIVEN failed me in
no particular.

* * * * *

Miss F. E. MILLS YOUNG, in _Imprudence_ (HODDER AND STOUGHTON), is not
at the top of her form, but a neat and effective finish makes some
amends for a performance which is, like the wind in a weather report,
mainly moderate or light. The heroine, _Prudence Graynor_, was the
child of her father's second marriage, and she was afflicted with
a battalion of elderly half-sisters and one quite detestable
half-brother. This battalion was commanded by one _Agatha_, and it
submitted to her orders and caprices in a way incomprehensible to
_Prudence_--and incidentally to me. The _Graynors_ and also the
_Morgans_ were of "influential commercial stock," and both families
were so essentially Victorian in their outlook and manner of living
that I was surprised when 1914 was announced. The trouble with this
story is that too many of the characters are drawn from the stock-pot.
But I admit that, before we have done with them, they acquire a
certain distinction from the adroitness with which the author
extricates th