triumphant ending. However unskilfully
told, such a history could hardly fail of its effect; by good fortune,
however, it finds in "QUEX" a chronicler able to do it justice. Simply
and without apparent effort he conveys the suspense of the days before
the attack (a couple of chapters here are as breathlessly exciting as
anything that I have yet read in the literature of the War), the
long trial of the retreat, and finally the retaliation and the
ever-quickening rush forward from victory to victory that makes last
autumn seem like an age of miracles. It is essentially a soldier's
story, at times technical, throughout filled with the unflurried
all-in-the-day's-work philosophy that upheld our armies in every
change of fortune. For many reasons a volume that should find its
place in any collection of the smaller histories of the Great War.

* * * * *

Until I had very nearly reached the end of _The Cormorant_ (MELROSE)
I could not, though I tried, make up my mind as to which of three
possible claimants was filling the title-role. When I did discover the
"Cormorant's" identity with a fourth person quite unsuspected, I found
myself just a little inclined to wonder whether perhaps the authoress
had not had the mystification of her readers as her real aim when she
chose her title, and merely introduced a pleasant American, who called
people names with a sincerity few of us would dare to imitate, in
order to justify her choice. But all the same I am not going to tell
her secret here, for I feel that much will be added to the interest of
a very pleasant book if readers will pause long enough at the end of
chapter sixteen to try to "spot" the "Cormorant" and--as I hope and
believe--guess wrong. Miss ANN (or ANNE, for her publishers seem to
be in two minds about it) WEAVER has compounded her tale from the
somewhat ordinary ingredients of a heroine, as aggressively red-haired
as only red-haired heroines can be; a philandering but finally
faithful hero; a worthless but charming married man, and a number of
less important people, many of whom are well drawn, though I think
that I have met that scheming and malicious French maid before. _The
Cormorant's_ lines are chiefly laid in country houses of the more
delightful sort and the story is well told. When Miss WEAVER invents a
more distinguished plot she should do something very good indeed.

* * * * *

Mr. HORACE BLEACK