5 MAY 1923, Page 22

The reprint of a sententious story, well padded with wads

of moonlight and magnolia, oxide of chromium, pretty acts of charity and queer aesthetics. A poet (who describes poetry as "perfecting the expression of ideas by putting them into words which best convey the sensation given by ideas " 0 and an artist both love a nymph, Elaine. After many intrigues and delays the poet presses his suit and is accepted. Arid truly he was worthy ; for he handed Elaine "a small, blue, calf-bound volume" of the poems she had inspired. But Elaine understood him ; and Mrs. Barrington understands too, for when he exclaims "Ali! that is silence beautified," she is kind enough to add that "at the moment he was not so much thinking of what he was saying as of the two sisters he was watching."