20 SEPTEMBER 1935, Page 6

Busy men would show themselves well-advised if they got some

competent person to read their . proofs for them. Take Sir Austen's book. He is much too good a French scholar to leave words like precieuses and revolu- tion without accents, or to write theatre for theeltre ; much too good a Parliamentarian to describe the Earl of Carlisle as Lord Carlyle ; much too ardent an admirer of Thackeray to put Becky Sharpe, with a superfluous e, for Becky Sharp. Fortunately; the memoirs are too interest- ing and in : places too important, for such lapses to call for more than passing notice. JANUS.