FICTION
A SON OF THE HOUSE. By A. R. Weekes. (Constable. 7s. 6d.)—This is a novel of a definitely superior order, one which is worth reading seriously and then recommending afterwards. It may be old-fashioned for a book to have a plot, particularly one about a missing heir, but it is at least refreshing and interesting after too many volumes of plotless and often pointless introspection alone. Here the plot is the framework for connected character-studies and much fine psychology. It relates the adventures in England, just before the War, of two delightful families, one verging towards the Bohemian and the other typically country. The central figure, however, is a young man, Denis, who claims to be the eldest son and heir, long supposed dead, of Lord Caleham. He makes friends with his half-brother, Martin, the putative heir, and with his half-sister Sophy. Both of them are in love with members of the genial and delightful Charnwoods, Denis's only friends in England. The scenes between Denis and his hot-tempered and proud old father are most in- geniously carried through, so, too, are those between Martin and Olive Charnwood. She is a fine and living character : she loves Martin but will not marry him. It is not only because as " Mother " to all her strangely contrasted brothers and sisters she has ties, but because, too, of a bitter secret.
The fortunes of Denis, indeed of all of them, are finally taken in hand by the vast mechanism of war. The least admirable Charnwood dies magnificently, the others find a solution of their problems, and Denis, unwillingly now, comes into his rights. So many credible, likeable and natural people have not enlivened the pages of any novel lately, nor has so human and enduring a tale been so well told.
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