ured such a harassing experience as the seven days' continuous
retreat could possibly be in a condition to turn and fight. Not for
the first or last time in the War German psychology was woefully at
fault. Whether General MAURICE'S theory is correct or not, it is
most attractively set forth, and, thanks to the excellent; maps with
which the volume is provided, can be easily followed even by the
non-military reader.

* * * * *

There was at first a little danger of my being put off _Fruit of
Earth_ (METHUEN) by the uneasy manner of its opening chapters and a
style that it is permissible to call distinctly "fruity." Thus on page
5 J. MILLS WHITHAM is found writing about "an astonishment that nearly
smudged the last spark of vitality from a hunger-bitten author," and
a good deal more in the same style. But I am glad to say that the
tale subsequently pulls itself together, and, despite some occasional
high-falutin, becomes an interesting and human affair. It is a story
of country life, the main theme of which is a twofold jealousy, that
of the chronic invalid, _Mrs. Linsell_, towards the girl _Mary_, whom
she rightly suspects of displacing her in the thoughts of _Inglebury_;
and that of _Amos_, who marries _Mary_, towards _Inglebury_, whom he
rightly suspects of occupying too much room in the reflections of his
wife. In other words, the simple life at its most suspicious, with
the rude forefathers of the hamlet supplying a scandalous chorus. The
strongest part of the story is the tragedy, suggested with a poignancy
almost too vivid, of the wretched elder woman, tortured in mind and
body, morbidly aware of the contrast between her own decay and the
vitality of her rival. As to _Inglebury_ and _Mary_, the causes of all
the pother, they struck me as conspicuously unworth so much fussing
over; and, when their final flight together landed them--well,
where it did, I could only feel that the neighbourhood was to be
congratulated. But, as you see, I had by this time become unwillingly
interested. So there you have it; an unequal book, about people
unattractive but alive.

* * * * *

When the literary Roll of Honour of all the belligerents comes to be
considered quietly, in the steady light of Peace, not many names will
stand higher in any country than that of our English writer, HECTOR
HUGH MUNRO, whose subtle and witty satires, stories and fantasies
were put forth