NO VELS.
THE ENEMY'S CAMP.*
MESSRS. SHERINGHAM and Meakin have already contributed in collaboration to the gaiety of the novel-reading public, and the continuance of their partnership is fully justified by the entertaining and irresponsible volume before us. They have given us a comedy of sunshine, doubly welcome in these days of December gloom ; they have introduced us to a number of exceedingly pleasant and genial young people ; and they have recalled to all' who love the river the delights of an inland waterway, far from' crowded locks; snorting launches, and ill-bred Sunday trippers. The Enenly's Camp is equally far from fulfilling the ideals of the strenuous or the smart schools of fiction. There is in it no attempt to -edify or instruct on the one hand,, or to startle and shock on the other. But„ given the unpretentious scheme, either treatment Would be out of place:. In the record of a summer holiday, of good-fellowship in the open air,.of love in idleness, the intrusion of tragedy would strike, a jarring note, the sophisticated amenities of town life would be out of keeping with the surroundings. The average age of the dramatis personae, with only two necessary exceptions, is little over twenty, and their outlook on life is unclouded; the young ladies have excellent appetites—we read in one passage how their uncle is exposed defenceless to their geniality at the breakfast-table—and Mr. Belloc will note with approval that the young men drink beer with impunity at moat hours of the day.
The scheme of the story is simplicity itself. Five young men charter a houseboat for their summer holiday, and on taking up their quarters at a convenient spot on the nameless river of their choice—the authors show a wise discretion in withholding precise informationfind to their dismay that another party have pitched their tents within striking distance; worse still, that the "enemy's camp" contains Amazons armed with parasols. The houseboat party are ostentatiously solid in their misogyny, with the exception of their most ornamental member, " the magnificent Charles," an engaging young Baronet who makes no secret of his intention to cultivate the society of the enemy. But even before this rash declaration, his friends, resenting the inopportune magnificence of his attire have hidden his Gladstone bag containing the most decorative portion of his wardrobe. Yet, after all, it is not Charles who is the real traitor to the cause of misogyny. His attentions
are confined to entertaining the sole male representative of the enemy's camp, the amiable, henpecked husband of the aunt of two charming young ladies, who, with their friend Doris Yonge, succeed in converting three- of the houseboat party from the cult of 'bachelorhood. Talbot, the arch-traitor, is carried so far by his infatuation for Miss Cicely Neave as to masquerade in the stolen attire of his friend. Majendie, a very young doctor, rescues' her sister Agatha from the obtrusive attentions of a -cow. Crichton, scholar and schoolmaster, avails himself of an unconventional introduction to instruct Miss Yonge in • The Enemy's Camp. By Hugh T. Sheringham and Neville Meakin. London : Macmillan and Co. fas.1 sketching. Thus we have three clandestine flirtations going on for some time before any one of the culprits is aware of the guilt of the others, the chaperon never suspecting her charges, while her husband is engrossed in the task of assisting Charles to discover his missing bag. The plot is alight and not devoid of artificiality, but it is worked out with such ingenuity, high spirits, good humour, and good feeling that its improbabilities are readily overlooked in the mood of grateful enjoyment which it promotes.
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