12 MAY 1923, Page 23

• Miss Netts Syrett has already made a nice reputation

by her historical romances and the charming period heroines who adorn them. Lady Jim is a well-told tale, capturing

during its spell the most sophisticated reader, though we think that the effort to reproduce seventeenth-century con-

versation is rather overdone. " I do entreat your pardon." . . " One day as I did walk by custom in the wood. This sort of talk conjures up not Pepys's England, but a third-rate travelling theatrical company doing its worst with sword and cloak.