me, but inspired with an infectious
delight in them. It is, for example, a singularly happy touch that the
wild oats that _Uncle Simon_ tries to retrieve are not of to-day but
from the long-vanished pastures of mid-Victorian London. Of course
such a fantasy can't properly be ended. Having extracted (as I
gratefully admit) the last ounce of entertainment from him, the
authors simply wake _Uncle Simon_ up and go home. As a small literary
coincidence I may perhaps add that it was my fortune to read the book
in the very garden (of that admirable Shaftesbury inn) which, under
a transparent disguise, is the scene of _Uncle Simon's_ restoration.
Naturally this enhanced my enjoyment of a sportive little comedy,
which I can most cordially commend.

* * * * *

Mr. ST. JOHN G. ERVINE is a versatile author who exhibits that
unevenness of quality which is generally the besetting sin of
versatile authors. When he is good he is very good indeed, and in _The
Foolish Lovers_ (COLLINS) he is at his best. The Ulsterman is seldom
either a lovable or an interesting character. He has certain rude
virtues which command respect and other qualities, not in
themselves virtues--such as clan conceit and an intensely narrow
provincialism--that beget the virtues of industry, honesty and
frugality. But to the philosopher and student of character all types
are interesting, and Mr. ERVINE'S skill lies in his ability not merely
to draw his Ballyards hero to the life but to interest us in his
unsuccessful efforts to become a successful writer. It is merely clan
conceit that drives him forward in the pursuit of this purpose, for
circumstances have clearly intended him to carry on the grocery
business in which the family have achieved some success and a full
measure of local esteem. The _MacDermotts_ never failed to accomplish
their purpose; he, as a _MacDermott_, proposed to achieve fame as a
novelist. It was quite simple. But it turned out to be not at all
simple. The quite provincial young _MacDermott_ cannot make London
accept him at his own valuation and his novels are poor stuff. His
wife, loyal to him but still more loyal to the _MacDermott_ clan into
which she has married and which now includes a little _MacDermott_, is
the first to recognise that her husband had best seek romance in the
family grocery business. Then the _MacDermott_ himself, with that
shrewdness which may be late in coming to an Ulsterman but never