ng
omnibuses in the Futurist mode, to render them invisible at a distance.
A few weeks from now I shall take down _The Lad With Wings_ from its
shelf and read it all over again. It is that sort of book.

* * * * *

When old _Lady Polwhele_ asked the _Reverend Dr. Gwyn_ to let his
daughter _Delia_ go with her as companion to a very smart house party, I
doubt whether the excellent man would have given so ready an assent had
he known what was going to come of it. For my own part I suspected we
were in for yet another version of _Cinderella_, with _Delia_ snubbed by
the smart guests, and eventually united, as like as not, to young _Lord
Polwhele_. However, Miss Dorothea Townshend, who has written about all
these people in _A Lion, A Mouse and a Motor Car_ (Simpkin), had other
and higher views for her heroine. True, the house party was ultra-smart;
true also that there was one woman who spoke and behaved cattishly; but
it was a refreshing novelty to find that throughout the tale the ugly
sisters, so to speak, were hopelessly outnumbered by the fairy
godmothers. Later, the visit led to _Delia's_ going as governess to the
children of a Russian Princess, and finding herself in circles that
might be described as not only fast but furious. Here we were in a fine
atmosphere of intrigue, with spies, and Grand Dukes, and explosive golf
balls and I don't know what beside. It is all capital fun; and, though I
am afraid the political plots left me unconvinced, the thing is told
with such ease and _bonhomie_ that it is saved from banality; even when
the amazing cat of the house-party turns up as a female bandit and tries
to hold _Delia_ and her Princess to ransom. And of course the fact that
the period of the tale is that of the earliest motors gives it the
quaintest air of antiquity. Somehow, talk of sedan chairs would sound
more modern than these thrills of excitement about six cylinders and
"smelly petrol." In short, for many reasons Miss Townshend's book
provides a far brisker entertainment than its cumbrous title would
indicate.

* * * * *

Mr. Stephen Graham is fast becoming the arch-interpreter of Holy Russia.
In _The Way of Martha and the Way of Mary_ (Macmillan) he returns with
even more than his customary zeal to his good work, wishing herein
specifically to interpret Russian Christianity to the West. A passionate
earnestness informs his discursive eloquence. I