The really stupid thing about _Mr. Fergus Rowley_ was that he had never
been to see _The Great Adventure_. That popular play must have been running
for a considerable while (and the story appeared in book-form of course
much earlier) before he decided to "fake" a suicide from the deck of the
liner _Transella_ and leave his large possessions to an unknown and
penniless nephew. _It Will Be All Right_ (HUTCHINSON) is the sanguine title
which Mr. TOM GALLON has given to his latest novel; but whether he refers
merely to _Mr. Rowley's_ optimism or to the further possibility of his
readers sharing that gentleman's ignorance of current drama, is more than I
can say. Anyhow, _Mr. Rowley_ disappeared, and his nephew succeeded to an
estate largely impoverished by the depredations of _Gabriel Thurston_, a
fraudulent solicitor and unmitigated rogue after Mr. GALLON'S own heart
(and mine). Meanwhile, _Mr. Rowley_ was reduced to playing butler in his
own house and thereby saving some of the most precious of his curios from
the double waste of a spendthrift heir and an unscrupulous lawyer. There
was also--need I mention it?--a Circe in the case. _It Will Be All Right_
is an exercise in the picaresque school, lacking none of the author's usual
raciness and vigour; but, if at the end we find _Mr. Fergus Rowley_ still
unable to reinstate himself, and left with no better consolation than the
"Heigho" of his famous great-uncle _Anthony_, the fault, I feel, was his
own. He ought to have looked in at the Kingsway Theatre and provided
himself with the indispensable mole.

* * * * *

[Illustration: THE SPREAD OF CUBISM.]

* * * * *

"ON."

(_A contemporary remarked recently how many names of famous men have ended
in "on."_)

Call no man famous till you know his end.
"On" is the most effective. Docked of "on,"
Who's MILT? or NELS? or NEWT? "On" nerves Anon
To blush unseen in public. Say, who penn'd
_Don Juan?_ Was it BYR? Could BURT befriend
The humpstruck? So curtailed and put upon,
Would CAXT or PAXT, would LIPT, would WINST have shone?
No, they would not. Their "on"'s what we commend.

And what though "on" too lavishly impart
The gift of greatness ("CHESTERT," murmur some,
"Were ample; not to mention A. C. BENS")?
We're spared--remember this in "on's" defence--
A SHAWON ranting from a super-cart,
A CAINEON skilled to beat