... . By Richard Marsh. Chalto and Windus.) It would be a pity if the reader should be put off by a ridiculous buhl table and some impos sible people in the early chapters of Mr. Marsh's story. In spite of much fantastic clumsiness in the building of her fate, his heroine does manage to get into the affections, and will afford her admirers the enioyment ot some very tnruimg scenes. Jtreaks ol ...

... . THE Palace Theatre has thrown overboard its own particular brand of revue, and is now presenting a musical farce which in reality is a farce on quite orthodox lines, apart from the fact that the characters now and then sing songs --without any provocation, and with hardly sufficient excuse in the quality of the songs, for the music might well have a more novel flavour. The farce is based ...

... Belgium in Shadow. There are a good many who will argue that, until actual history has been written, enough has been said in type of the conditions prevailing in Belgium during the earlier stages of the enemy occu pation and, particularly, of the surrender of Brussels and of Antwerp. Louise Mack that is, Mrs. Creed) has proved that this is not the case. Her book is remarkably good, and it sets ...

... 'v'vv^fc ''.'T'' .v-i-Cfc?-' THE LITERARY LOUNGER 4f j The Clarity of Mr. Belloc. It is more than a little difficult for even the most constant reader of communiques to gain complete comprehension of advance and retreat. Mr. Hilaire Belloc is a first-rate aide in this matter: with or without diagrams, he has the gift of clarity; and clarity, in his case, covers a multitude of knowledge! In ...

... Quis By J. A. T. Lloyd. Stanley Paul.) In that underworld of butterscotch and mar bles, of pegtops and hand made boats and Latin Grammar, called a Preparatory School, little Rickard Thurston found his nickname. Quis he would shout in schoolboy formula, and forthwith surrender to the first and loudest Ego some schoolboy treasure. Anything and everything a knife, a stamp- album, a pocket-book, ...

... . MAMEENA, at the Globe, is quite noteworthy as a spec tacular entertainment, but of small account as drama. The Zulus who talk they talk ordinary j-ournalese most of the time are uninteresting stock figures which, except for a few turns of speech, might have come from old-time Redskin melo dramas. Even Miss Lily Brayton as the South African Helen of Troy can make little of the central ...

... THE LITERARY LOUNGER. WOMAN AND HER PLACE IN WAR: A DEMONSTRATION.* Beauty and the Beast, War Allied. There are those who believe--Lord Esher among them--that a country not engaged in warfare infringes the rules in sending Red Cross aid to a belligerent, arguing that those who assist combatants, patching up wounded to go and kill and maim their opponents break the laws of neutrality as ...

... The Judge's Chair. By Eden Phillpotts. John Murray.) From a granite throne, a relic of the mediaeval, but having for footstool a living cushion of grass and buttercups, comes this last series of Dartmoor stories, due, Mr. Phillpotts tells us, to the old. ancient man he found resting- there not bettered, but set down as heard, or at most sometimes edited in lettered prose. If it is, alas I to ...

... Kettle on the Boil Again. Captain Kettle was-- dare we say it?-- boiling over in his adventures on the War-path. Not being judged fit to serve with the forces-- naval or military-- worried him; but most certainly did not stop his activity. 'I've tried everything, Sir and not one of them will have me. They say I've a wooden leg.' 'And that's 's not true,' broke in Lady Kettle. 'The ...

... The Romantic Woman. By Bridget Maclagan. Constable The experienced taster of ro mance may very well be left to this clever, vivid example of its type, with one recommendation --to begin at the second chapter, and take the first last but one; otherwise, it will be only time wasted in wild guessing as to what that first chapter is all about. It may be an old story-- the American heiress wedding ...

... WTHE La Nurse. Modern Rumania, the Sphinx of the Near East, is not the theme of these letters, written by Millie Ormonde to her cousin, Edmund Talbot, Squire of Talwood, Devonshire, when she was La Nurse to a Bucharest family-- Jewish-- in the days of the late King Charles. That is nothing against them: on the contrary, it lends them a certain mild piquancy and familiarity they might not ...

... British C ounter-Espi onage. So much has been written of late as to Germany's system of spying, its ramifications and its Stieberish efficiency, that it is well to recall that there is such a thing as counter-espionage, practised by all countries, and by this country particularly well. Our Secret Service grant is small-- less than £40,000 a year-- compared with Germany's million or so, ...