words round
the creatures of his own imagination. The man who has it possesses a
future, because he is open to the teaching of experience. And among
the men with a future I number Mr. Baxter.

Throughout the book his pictures of life are certainly arresting--taken
impartially both in Great Britain and America. What could be better
than some of his descriptions?

The speech of the American diplomat at a private dinner is the truest
defence and explanation of America's delay in coming into the war that
I remember to have read. The scene is set in the high light of
excitement, and the rhetorical phrasing of the speech would do credit
to a famous orator.

But I fear that I may be giving the impression that _The Parts Men
Play_ is merely a piece of propagandist fiction--something from which
the natural man shrinks back with suspicion. Nothing could be farther
from the truth. Mr. Baxter's strength lies in the rapid flow and sweep
of his narrative. His characterisation is clear and firm in outline,
but it is never pursued into those quicksands of minute analysis which
too often impede the stream of good story-telling.

I am glad that a Canadian novelist should have given us a book which
supports the promise shown by the author in _The Blower of Bubbles_,
and marks him out for a distinguished future.

If in the course of a novel of action he has something to teach his
British readers about the American temperament, and his American public
about British mentality, so much the better.

BEAVERBROOK.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER

I. LADY DURWENT DECIDES ON A DINNER
II. CONCERNING LADY DURWENT'S FAMILY
III. ABOUT A TOWN HOUSE
IV. PROLOGUE TO A DINNER-PARTY
V. THE OLYMPIANS THUNDER
VI. A MORNING IN NOVEMBER
VII. THE CAFE ROUGE
VIII. INTERMEZZO
IX. A HOUSE-PARTY AT ROSELAWN
X. GATHERING SHADOWS
XI. THE RENDING OF THE VEIL
XII. THE HONOURABLE MALCOLM DURWENT STARTS ON A JOURNEY
XIII. THE MAN OF SOLITUDE
XIV. STRANGE CRAFT
XV. DICK DURWENT
XVI. THE FEMININE TOUCH
XVII. MOONLIGHT
XVIII. ELISE
XIX. EN VOYAGE
XX. THE GREAT NEUTRAL
XXI. A NIGHT IN JANUARY
XXII. THE CHALLENGE
XXIII. THE SMUGGLER BREED
XXIV. THE SENTENCE
XXV. THE FIGHT FOR THE BRIDGE
XXVI. THE END OF THE ROAD
XXVII. A LIGHT ON THE WATER

THE PARTS MEN PLAY.

CHAPTER I.

LADY DURWENT DECIDES ON A DINNER.

I.

His Ma