redit to the remarkable personality
of the German commander, entirely demolishes the theory, so grateful to our
sentimentalists, that the absence of surrenders on the part of the enemy's
black troops was due to any devotion to VON LETTOW-VORBECK as leader; the
explanation being the characteristic German dodge of creating from the
natives a military caste so highly privileged, and consequently unpopular
with their fellows, that surrender, involving return to native civilian
life, became a practical impossibility.

* * * * *

Much the best part, and a good best, of _Sir Harry_ (COLLINS) is the
opening, which is not only delightful in itself but contains almost the
sole example of a chapter-long letter (of the kind usually so unconvincing
in fiction) in which I have found it possible to believe as being actually
written by one character to another. The explanation of which is that this
one is supposed to be sent to his wife by the new _Vicar of Royd_, himself
a successful novelist, on a visit of inspection to his future parish. The
efforts of _Mrs. Grant_, at home, to disentangle essential facts from the
complications of the literary manner form as pleasant and human an
introduction to a story as any I remember. The story itself is one highly
characteristic of its author, Mr. ARCHIBALD MARSHALL, both in charm and
truth to life, as also in one minor drawback, of which I have taken
occasion to speak before. Nothing could be better done than the picture of
the household at Royd Castle, the boy owner, _Sir Harry_, sheltered by the
almost too-encompassing care of the three elder inmates, mother,
grandmother and tutor. When the fictionally inevitable happens and an Eve
breaks into this protected Eden there follow some boy-and-girl love-scenes
that may perhaps remind you--and what praise could be higher?--of the
collapse of another system on the meeting of _Richard_ and _Lucy_. I will
not anticipate the end of a sympathetically told story, which I myself
should have enjoyed even more but for Mr. MARSHALL'S habit (hinted at
above) of following real life somewhat too closely in the matter of
non-progressive discussion. How I should like him to lay his next scene in
a community of Trappists!

* * * * *

_The Haunted Bookshop_ (CHAPMAN AND HALL) is a daring, perhaps too daring,
mixture of a browse in a second-hand bookshop and a breathless bustle among
international cri