An Octave. By Jeffery E. Jeffery. (Leonard Parsons. 7s. 6d.
net.)—The device of keeping the action of his story within the space of a single week, though attractive, has rather hampered Mr. Jeffery K Jeffery in his new novel. Rexon—a publisher with an old-established business—faces the prospect of a great reduction in his income and a practical reconstruction of his business, and finds in it salvation for his own character. An unexpected legacy deprives him of this prospect, and thus prOduces a situation which might well have been treated subjectively instead of objectively. The week being up, the necessity of ending the book on the very day that this news is received is, to say the least of it, unfortunate, as this situation is more interesting than anything which has gone before.. The pictures of the different members of a professional man's family are extremely well drawn and their reflections on the various newspapers which they read are distinctly entertaining. These, indeed, open a new vista on how the author as literary man might revenge himself on the critical journalist.