* *

Mr. W. E. NORRIS is subtle; at least if my idea of the genesis of
_Barbara and Company_ (CONSTABLE) is the right one. I believe, then,
that Mr. NORRIS found himself possessed of plots sufficient for a number
of agreeable short stories, but that, knowing short stories to be more
or less a drug in the market, he very skilfully united them into one by
the simple process of making all their characters friends of _Barbara_.
Nothing could be more effective. For example, Mr. NORRIS thinks what fun
it would be to describe a race ridden by two unwilling suitors, the
prize to be the lady's heart, which neither in the least wishes to win.
Promptly _Miss Ormesby_, the heroine, is asked down on a visit to
_Barbara_, and the story is told, most amusingly and well, in a couple
of chapters. Again, the pathetic and moving tale of _Miss Nellie
Mercer_, the nameless companion, who blossomed into fierce renown as
_Senorita Mercedes_, the dancer, and died of it. Why should not this
same _Barbara_ have adopted the parentless girl in childhood? It is all
simplicity itself. Perhaps you may object that the useful _Barbara_
shows some signs of being a little overworked, and that few women are
likely to have had quite so adventurous a company of friends. In this
case I shall have nothing to urge, except that, so far as I am
personally concerned, Mr. NORRIS has such a way with him that if he
chose to people _Barbara's_ drawing-room with the persons of the
_Arabian Nights_ he could probably convince me that there was nothing
very much out of the ordinary in that assembly. And, after all, pianists
and writers and actors, all the kind of folk with whom _Barbara_
surrounded herself, are precisely those to whom short stories should,
and do, happen. Next time, however, I hope Mr. NORRIS'S inspiration will
be less fragmentary but equally happy.

* * * * *

_Johnnie Maddison_ (SMITH, ELDER) was nice. And here and now I wish to
propose a vote of thanks to Mr. JOHN HASLETTE for having the uncommon
pluck to create a hero neither handsome nor strong. Brave of course he
had to be, or how should that which is written in the proverbs have
been fulfilled, but "he was slight," "he stooped a little," "he had an
ordinary face." (What hopes that brings to the hearts of some of us!)
For the rest, he lived in Sta. Malua, to which tropical port came _Molly
Hatherall_, intending to be married to a handsome scamp who spent all
his sa