15 JANUARY 1916, Page 23

• READABLE NOVELS.--Mia Billy—Married. By Eleanor H. Porter. (Stanley Paul

and Co. 6s.)—This pretty story is one of a series concerning the charming Miss Billy. It has con- siderable humour of a quiet kind.—The Lavender Hedge. By Florence Bone. (Charles H. Kelly. 3s. 6d.)—Miss Bone tells of a girl of England and a girl of Paris in 1792. The matter of her book is more interesting than its manner, which is conven- tional.—Bildad the Quill-Driver. By William Caine. (John Lane. 6s.)—Mr. Caine's story might be a parody of The Arabian Nights. He brings to it a dry and satirical humour which is his own, but which is well understood by Mr. H. M. Bateman in his illustrations.—Tales from Five Chimneys. By Marmaduke Pickthall. (Mills and Boon. 6s.)—Most of these short stories are concerned with the East. Their characterization is good, and they are well devised.—Thorntey Colton, Blind Reader of Hearts. By Clinton H. Stagg. (Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. 6s.)—A series of detective stories which are conventional in manner, but most ingenious in plot.