ter of the
book, as his final crop of tragedy gives to it the at first puzzling title.
There is too much variety of incident in _Bob's_ uneasy life for me to
follow it in detail. The tale is sad--such a harvesting of green apples
gives little excuse for festival--but at each turn, in his devouring and
fatal love for the gipsy, _Hannah_, in his abandonment by her, and most of
all in his breaking adventures of the soul, now saved, now damned, he
remains a tragically moving figure. Miss KAYE-SMITH, in short, has written
a novel that lacks the sunshine of its predecessors, but shows a notable
gathering of strength.

* * * * *

Would you not have thought that at this date motor-cars had definitely
joined umbrellas and mothers-in-law as themes in which no further humour
was to be found? Yet here is Miss JESSIE CHAMPION writing a whole book,
_The Ramshackle Adventure_ (HODDER AND STOUGHTON), all about the comical
vagaries of a cheap car--a history that, while it has inevitably its dull
moments, has many more that are both amusing and full of a kind of charm
that the funny-book too often conspicuously lacks. I think this must be
because almost all the characters are such human and kindly folk, not the
lay figures of galvanic farce that one had only too much reason to expect.
For example, the owner of the car is a curate, whose wife is supposed to
relate the story, and _George_ has to drive the Bishop in his unreliable
machine. Naturally one anticipates (a little drearily) upsets and ditches
and episcopal fury, instead of which--well, I think I won't tell you what
happens instead, but it is something at once far more probable and
pleasant. I must not forget to mention that the cast also includes a pair
of engaging lovers whom eventually the agency of the car unites. Indeed, to
pass over the lady would display on my part the blackest ingratitude, since
among her many attractive peculiarities it is expressly mentioned that she
(be still, O leaping heart!) reads the letter-press in _Punch_.

* * * * *

Mrs. EDITH MARY MOORE has devoted her great abilities to proving in _The
Blind Marksman_ (HODDER AND STOUGHTON) how shockingly bad the little god's
shooting became towards the end of last century. She proves it by the
frustrated hopes of _Jane_, her heroine, who in utter ignorance of life
marries a man whose pedestrian attitude of mind is quite unfitted to keep
pace wit