eptionally fortunate in the fact that when the crash came they had one
of those quite invaluable super-domestics whom Mr. PETT RIDGE delights in
to steer them back to prosperity. The story tells us how the KAISER
compelled the _Hilliers_ to leave "The Croft," and how that very capable
woman, _Miss Weston_, restored it to them again, chiefly by the aid of her
antique shop; and to anyone who has recently been a customer in such an
establishment this result fully explains itself. I need not further enlarge
upon the theme of the book. Your previous knowledge of Mr. PETT RIDGE'S
method will enable you to imagine how the various members of the _Hillier_
household confront the changes brought by The Amazing Years; but this will
not make you less anxious to read it for yourself in the author's own
inimitable telling. I won't call this his best novel; now and again,
indeed, there seemed rather too much padding for so slender a plot; but,
take it for all in all, and bearing in mind the strange fact that we all
love to read about events with which we are already familiar, I can at
least promise you a cheery and optimistic entertainment.

* * * * *

_Jan Ross_, grey-haired at twenty-seven, but sweet of face and of a most
taking way, found herself unexpectedly confronted, a year or two ago, with
a "job." It was eventually to include the looking after a certain _Peter_,
of the Indian Civil Service, a thoroughly good sort, who by now is making
her as happy as she deserves; but in the first place it meant the care of a
little motherless niece and nephew and their protection from a scoundrelly
father. How successfully she has been doing it and what charmingly human
babies are her charges, _Tony_ and _Fay_, you will realise when I say that
it is Mrs. L. ALLEN HARKER who has been telling me all about _Jan and Her
Job_ (MURRAY). You will understand, too, how pleasantly peaceful, how
utterly removed from the artificially forced crispness of the special
correspondent, is the telling of the story; but you must read it yourself
to learn how simply and naturally the writer has used the coming of the War
for her last chapter, and above all to get to know not only _Jan_ herself
but also that most loyal of comrades, her pal _Meg_. _Meg_, indeed, is
almost as much in the middle of the stage as the friend whose nursemaid she
has elected to become; and as the completion of her own private happiness
has to remain in doubt