daughter for her prospects and a
country lass for her looks; and there is a great deal of the most
unconvincing finance that ever I read, even in fiction. As for the
secretary's end, it wouldn't be fair to give that away, as it is
really the only point at which the plot quickens into sufficient
vigour to hold its own with the setting. Mr. HEADLAM obviously both
knows and loves the land of red screes; I am doubtful whether he is as
much at home with the stock-manipulators of Wall Street or their
emotional offspring. And I don't like his introduction of the second
heroine--"The girl's head was bare, save for the crowning glory of
womanhood." What I mean is, if it hadn't had that much covering----

* * * * *

_The King's Men_ (SECKER) are just our friends, yours and mine and Mr.
JOHN PALMER'S, who have exchanged their tools and toys, their pens,
wigs, brushes, books, spats and dreams for stars (one, two or three)
and scars; all drawn into the Great Adventure which began on that 4th
of August so many long years ago. Dilettante _Pelham_, prig and
pacificist not from passion but from detachment, always so unbeatable
in argument and always so wrong; sportsman _Rivers_, seeing simply and
straight; crank _Smith_; comfortable _Baddeley_ in his snug Government
berth; poser _Ponsonby_, always doing the thing that's the thing to
do; exquisite _Graham_, with his fair lodge in the wilderness--all
hallowed by the great consecration. There are, too, the King's women
and an unhappy necessary stay-at-home or two, and a big and rather
crude contractor, who will be master in his own works. But the young
men are the folk Mr. PALMER best understands and presents in turns of
clever and vehement talk. I beg you to read this book for these good
things and for a tender love of England which shines nobly between the
lines of it.

* * * * *

Perhaps _Fauvette_, the heroine of _The Green Orchard_ (CASSELL), was
too modern to have much acquaintance with the works of the late
WILLIAM BLACK. Which was a pity, as a recollection of _A Daughter of
Heth_ might have withheld her from her impulsive marriage with _Martin
Wilderspin_, or from feeling so much like a gold-fish out of water
when he took her away from Paris to share a life that was a dreary
contrast to all her previous experience. In any case I cannot hold her
blameless for the resulting shipwreck. A bride who comes down late for
a