arrows" and a "pop of
weasels." These are small matters, perhaps, but your sportsman cannot be
too accurate. _Mr. Biffin_ treats of practically every branch of sport,
from elephant-snaring to Sunday bridge, in the easy chatty style which
made _The Perfect Gentleman_ the inseparable companion of all who desire
to comport themselves correctly in Society. Nor is the usual complement
of anecdotes lacking. The practical value of these cannot be
over-estimated. A careful perusal of the tragic story of the late _Lord
Bloxham_, to take but one instance, will certainly save the lives of
many deep-sea fishermen who have fallen into the foolish habit of
angling for sharks with a line fastened to one of their waistcoat
buttons to save the trouble of holding it.

* * * * *

Mr. WILLIAM CAINE has a very nice and persistent sense of humour, and
his last book, _But She Meant Well_ (LANE), shows him in his most
natural and therefore best vein. His lady of the good intentions was one
_Hannah Neighbour_, an incorrigible infant whose eminently virtuous
resolves produced the most vicious results without the adventitious aid
of any extraordinary circumstances. There is generally about people who
mean well something pathetic and something else which is worse, and
these characteristics are apt to become so exaggerated in fiction as to
be almost offensive. Mr. CAINE'S young person is not of that sort; she
is no prig, and her fault is not weakness but irrepressible activity. To
whatever extent she annoyed me, I was always possessed with the morbid
desire to see some even worse result attending her efforts; and all the
while I had to give her credit for infecting the other characters of the
story with a remarkable vitality. I congratulate the author upon his
presentation of the problem, how can you deal with such a misguided
child so that you may at the same time check dangerous proclivities and
yet do justice to her excellent motives? Still more was I pleased with
his frank, if abominable, admission that in order properly to inculcate
discipline it is necessary for the most part to ignore motives and let
justice be blowed.

* * * * *

The reappearance of _Dorothea_ as a volume in the new collected edition
(CONSTABLE) of the works of Mr. MAARTEN MAARTENS has at this moment a
strange aptness. For you may remember that _Dorothea_, herself of
Dutch-English extraction, married into a P