28 APRIL 1923, Page 23

Doctor Heradius Gloss. By Guy de Maupassant. (Brentano's. 6s.) This

is a translation from a hitherto unpublished story written in youth by Maupassant. It is curiously unlike his other works in its weak construction and lack of finish, yet both in style and in mood—or rather, perhaps, in colour— it is externally characteristic. Here is a description of the doctor :-

" He wore a wig, dressed with care, was never ill, loved animals, did not detest his fellow-men, and adored roast quails."

Could anything be more admirable ? Here is the end—two old lunatics listen to the world outside the walls of their madhouse :—

" Sometimes during the night the sound of a dog howling and barking outside the walls would make Herodias and Dagobert tremble in their beds. It was the faithful Pythagoras who, having escaped his master's vengeance by a miracle, had tracked him to the threshold of his new home and was trying to gain an entrance to the house into which only men had the right to pass."