24 JULY 1926, Page 38

TIIS DAYS MADNESS. the • Author - Thi

3ettles," asked Letty Monekton on her twentieth birthday

what people ought to like ? " "Those, my dear, who ate best informed on the question at issue," was the tiresome reply she elicited from her 'uncle, the head of the Honckton family, and the sad part of it was that any other member of the family would have answered the question in the same way, for the Moncktons were very conscious of their integrity and importance, and had practically no sense of humour. This Day's Madness tells the story of Letty's struggle to assert her personality in the unsympathetic milieu in which she grew up. She inherited an artistic tem- perament from her mother, and when at last life became too -difficult at home, she hastily and half-heartedly married an eminent scientist, a " quack," according to the Moncktons, and, frightened at her own daring, ran away to her mother's family in Switzerland, only to find herself in an even more uncongenial atmosphere. Letty is never quite happy, but die is always interesting and her story makes an enjoyable aovel.