27 SEPTEMBER 1902, Page 22

The Wayfarers. By J. C. Snaith. (Ward, Lock, and Co.

6s.) —This story is constructed on strictly conventional lines ; not that the doings recorded in it are at all conventional—they aro very much the opposite—but that we recognise the reckless young nobleman, the wilful young woman, the angry father, the highway- man, the Bow Street runner, the rustics of various degree's, the inn- keeper, and all the posse comitatus of characters as quite familiar figures. We cannot say that the story interests us ; it seems remote from any life that we have seen, or read of outside fiction, or are even able to conceive. Yet there is plenty of adventure ; there is a perPetual movement of lively action, and a plot not un- skilfully constructed.