undeniably clever, though not to my mind up to
the level of Wells's very best. It rather gives the impression in
parts of having been written by the mile and then lengths cut off
as required. He has one very good touch, the realisation of the
impersonal and indiscriminate nature of the War: it claims as
victims both Mr. Britling's own son and the young German who had
been living with them before the War. The book concludes with a
letter from Britling to the German boy's father, attempting to
find some way out of the blackness. As usual with Wells, the best
feature of the novel is the way in which he expresses the point
of view of the average man. He has the trick of recording
reflections in a sort of staccato style, with gaps here and
there--just the way that one does think. There is some rot in the
book, but on the whole it is very good and well worth reading.

Recently I have been attending a Veterinary Course--lectures and
practical demonstration; most fascinating it is, I can assure
you.

WITH THE TANK CORPS

On February 13, 1917, Paul Jones joined the M.G.C.H.B., in other words
the Tank Corps. His joy at this transfer was unbounded. Nothing could
be in sharper contrast than the letters he wrote after joining the
Tank Corps and those penned during the preceding three months, when
the enforced inactivity of the cavalry and the nature of his own
routine work preyed on his spirits and made him exclaim with Ulysses:

How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use,
As though to breathe were Life!

_February 13th, 1917._

When I came in from my morning's work yesterday what should I
find but a telegram instructing me to report at the earliest
possible moment to Headquarters, Heavy M.G.C., for duty on
transfer! These things usually come with a rush after one has
been kept waiting a long time in suspense. I spent the rest of
the day in bringing my accounts and papers up to date, and this
morning came across in the motor to my destination. Is it not
splendid? My luck has never yet failed to stand me in good stead.
I won't deny, nevertheless, that it was a severe wrench parting
from the old Cavalry Division after twenty months of service with
it. I had formed many friendships there, among both officer