equire pages of quotation to do it anything like justice. It
can certainly be claimed for Captain TUCHY that he writes of what
he himself knows at first hand, and that his knowledge, like that of
another expert, is both extensive and peculiar, gleaned as it was from
personal service in Russia, Poland, Austria, Belgium, France, England,
Italy, Salonica, Palestine, Mesopotamia and several neutral States.
Still, absorbing as his book is, it suffers perhaps from being what
its publishers call "the first authentic and detailed record." One
feels now and then that posterity (which gets all the good things) may
score again in the revelation of yet more amazing details for which
the hour is not yet. Meanwhile, here to go on with is a fund of
thrilling information that will not only hold your delighted interest,
but (if you make haste before it becomes too widely known) ensure your
popularity as a remunerative diner-out.

_One after Another_ (HUTCHINSON), by Mr. STACY AUMONIER, is a tale
of social progress: of the steps--I imagine this is where the name
justifies itself--by which the son and daughter of a Camden Town
publican rise to higher or at least more brilliant things. You might
suppose this plan to promise comedy, but the fact is otherwise. Really
it is an angry book, and though there is laughter in places it is
mostly angry laughter, with a sting in it. Somehow, whether speaking
in his own person or through the voice of his hero, Mr. AUMONIER
gives me here (perhaps unjustly) the impression of having a grievance
against life. Yet it cannot be said that _Tom_ and _Laura Purbeck_
found their climb from Camden Town unduly arduous, since in a
comparatively short time one has made a position and pots of money as
a fashionable house-decorator, and the other is a famous concert star
and the wife of a marquis. I think my impression of unamiability must
be derived from the fact that the entire cast contains not one really
sympathetic character. Old _Purbeck_, who ruled his bar like an
autocrat and believed in honest alcohol (and fortunately for himself
died some years ago), comes nearest to it. _Laura_, of whom the author
gives us spasmodic glimpses, is vividly interesting, but repellent.
_Tom_, the protagonist, I found frankly dull. Perhaps I have dwelt
overmuch on defects. Certainly the story held my attention throughout,
even after my-disappointment at finding nobody to like in it.

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