Memories, Discreet and Indiscreet. By A Woman of No Import-
ance. (Herbert Jenkins. I2s. ild. net.)—This is a cheerful book of reminiscences of the interesting people whom the author met in the course of a wandering outdoor career as the wife of an Army officer in India, Egypt, and England. She tells many new stories about celebrities as widely separated as Cardinal Manning and Lord Cardigan, Parnell, Father Stanton, Melton Prior, and Fred Burnaby ; and site draws an unconventional and engaging sketch of a side of Lord Kitchener's character not generally pre- sented to the public. She gives, also, some fresh details of the famous Ride to Kandahar and the Majuba Hill disaster, but serious information is not her forte ; for example, it is hardly necessary to inform us solemnly t hat Mendelssohn composed Songs without Words, or that Cardinal Newman wrote Lead, Kindly Light." But in her lighter moods sho is always entertaining ; she avoids malicious scandal, and leaves on the reader's mind the impression of a very attractive personality, sweet-tempered, broad-minded, Gad unselfish, more devoted to living than to literature.
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