in the work.

* * * * *

I rather suspect Mrs. GERTRUDE ATHERTON of having written _The
Avalanche_ (MURRAY) either for the amusement of exercise in an
unfamiliar medium, or, well, for any motive that might explain a
production certainly not quite up to her own standard. Its publishers
(who may be prejudiced) consider _The Avalanche_ as "a brilliant and
engaging study of mystery and romance;" me it impressed as a melodrama
dependent on one long-heralded sensation, which proves on tardy arrival
an affair of disappointment. I suppose I must be careful not to give
away the mystery, such as it is. _Price Rugler_ was anxious to discover
why his attractive wife assumed a worried look when money was mentioned
and fainted on being told that she was not to wear the family ruby at a
particular masque. All this happened (you may not be astonished to hear)
in San Francisco, amongst that luxurious, idle, over-moneyed society
whose manners Mrs. ATHERTON knows and describes so well. _Price_ had
already found out, with the assistance of a not too brilliant detective,
that his wife's mother derived her income from a gambling saloon;
the remaining problem was how to link up this knowledge with the odd
behaviour of _Mrs. Price_. Perhaps you see it already. She had been--No,
I said I wouldn't, and I won't. Of course the discovery couldn't be
called cheerful, though it was fortunately made in time to prevent any
great harm. But it was nothing like an avalanche.

* * * * *

[Illustration: UNRECORDED HISTORY.

INCONSIDERATE FLAPPER WAYLAYS KING JOHN ON HIS RETURN FROM SIGNING MAGNA
CARTA AT RUNNYMEDE.]

* * * * *

It is much harder, I am afraid, to be a good Bengali than a good
Englishman. _Nikhil_, the Rajah of Sir RABINDRANATH TAGORE'S _The Home
and the World_ (MACMILLAN), persists in treating _Sandip Babu_ (a
convinced Nietzchean in philosophy and a Nationalist of the most
inflammable type) as an honoured guest of his household, in spite of the
fact that he differs from the fellow profoundly on every conceivable
topic and is well aware, moreover, that _Sandip_ is rapidly winning the
heart of his Rani, _Bimala_. _Nikhil_, you see, considers that "all
imposition of force is weakness," and that "only the weak dare not be
just." Most Westerners, I think, would have kicked the rhapsodical and
rather plausible agitator out-of-doors and felt all t