own hints show that artifice and elaboration are his if
he wants them. But he knows too that, in a book of this kind, it is direct simplicity and natural progress that count most. Where he could shape a tale or conversation he prefers to leave it, flattish as it may seem, for the truth it will bring quietly. If a figure slips in it is not a " character " but precisely the flitting aspect of a personality that might be met in the street. So with his own reflections. They are not polished to scintillate ; they may on occasion miss the daylight radiance ; but their sober livery of grey twilight, pierced by humour, wins its harmony. Mr. Vachell, in his calm retirement at Bath, is a friendly companion. He remembers the past without exaggerated sighing ; he endures present privations without affecting a philosophy ; hints at politics and hesitates at prejudices. In some sense an upholder of traditions, he keeps an open mind ft r Modernity. This last, in the shape of the lively Josephine, is Mr. Vachell's granddaughter and familiar spirit ; his misfortune is that she will grow up and out of this series of journals. While no single page of such a book is breath-taking, the cumulative effect is Mellow, agreeable and replete with the good humour that attends a cultured mind.
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