once, may yet be adorable ever after, is certainly more to one’s taste than the philanderer about town, admiring other men’s wives, in July, 1914.  And so the story, slight though it is, ends on a strong note and with fair hope of happiness for two wiser and not much sadder people.  Some of the minor characters are quite capitally drawn, particularly the old father and mother in pathetic flight before the shadow of their daughter’s disgrace; but it is the freshness of the heroine herself, outraging all tradition by refusing, though without bravado, to remain for ever in the gloom of a childish error, that one likes to remember.  Altogether, the author’s friends will find this book not at all below the level of his best work.

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Small Craft (ELKIN MATTHEWS), by Miss C. FOX SMITH, contains several poems that have appeared in Punch over the initials “C.F.S.”  They should receive a fresh welcome from all who share her understanding of the ways of seafaring men, and from the larger public that is beginning to appreciate the gallantry and devotion of our Merchant Service.

* * * * *

Extract from a letter in The Saturday Review:—­

    “But posterity ought to share the burden, as it has always done in
    the past.”

A tardy but complete answer to the old question, “What has posterity done to deserve our consideration?”