me that will glow in the sun
When the babes of our babies are--Yonder!

* * * * *

~Rivers' Popular Novels~

Crown 8vo., 6_s_.

* * * * *

~The House of Merrilees~. ARCHIBALD MARSHALL. _[Now Ready_.

~The Unequal Yoke~. Mrs. H.H. PENROSE. _[Now Ready_.

~The Discipline of Christine~. Mrs. BARRE GOLDIE. _[Now Ready_.

~Peter Binney, Undergraduate~. ARCHIBALD MARSHALL. _[Now Ready_.

~Peace on Earth~. REGINALD TURNER. _[Now Ready_.

~The Countermine~. ARTHUR WENLOCK. _[Now Ready_.

~The Friendships of Veronica~. THOMAS COBB. [May 17.

~Hugh Revel, A Public School Story~. LIONEL PORTMAN. [July 25.]

~Notes on Books.~

In issuing a list of new and forthcoming publications, Mr. Alston
Rivers cannot but express his gratification at the spirit of fair play
which has enabled him to realise such a striking series of successes.
The primary business of a publisher is to discriminate, both as to
intrinsic literary merit, and with regard to what will hit the public
taste, a classical illustration of the difficulty in gauging the
latter being the rejection of "John Inglesant" by the late James Payn,
then "reader" for an eminent firm. While fully recognising the
remarkable gifts of the author Mr. Payn's hesitancy as to the book's
attractions got the better of his judgment; and with "_The House of
Merrilees_" it is now an open secret that very much the same point of
view was taken in more than one instance. Mr. Marshall's "_Peter
Binney, Undergraduate_," had been and is still decidedly popular, but
his new book was more ambitious, possessing such a plot as to require
peculiarly delicate handling. Had it been handled in a way that
combined a really high literary standard with more stirring qualities?
The question requires no answer now, for the triumph which the
publisher at once foretold on reading the manuscript has been more
than attained, and "_The House of Merrilees_" is indisputably the
novel of the season. It has at the same time demonstrated to the
publishing trade that a sensational story does not labour under any
disadvantage by the abduction of literary style.

* * * * *

In a wholly different vein are "_The Discipline of Christine_" and
"_The Unequal Yoke_," by Mrs. Barre Goldie and Mrs. H.H. Penrose
respectively. In the former the ways and moods of childhood are
depicted in original and inimitable fas