A Graduate in Lore. By Inglis Allen. (C. Arthur Pearson.
6s.)—Hugh Ashby is beyond all question a "bounder." But then the author takes care that he fares in social life as our sense of justice demands. Ho thinks himself irresistible, for instance, and his victories turn out to be somethingInuch worse than Pyrrhic. The last that we see of him is in disastrous flight before a fair foe. Mr. Allen shows, however, a certain moderation in dealing with his hero. Ho can run, for instance. We have not been able to make out whether he can swim. On p. 13, "as a keen swimmer," he is " genuinely fond of the sea," but his experiences at Tulsa Bay seem to tell a different tale. There is a certain smartness in the way in which the man's blunders and discomfitures are told. The Cynic," too, a more pretentious creature of the same kind, is amusing. But such a book to be worth reading must be very well done, and that is more than we can say for A Graduate in Lore.
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