6 AUGUST 1927, Page 23

SYLVIA OF THE MINUTE. By Helen R. Martin. (John Lane.

7s. 6d.)—In spite of its absurdities, this is a very entertaining little story. It gives an excellent picture of the Pennsylvanian Dutch, a section of the population of America about which the. English reader is generally ignorant. The author makes some bad slips as to British titles. The daughter of a baronet who has lost his only son is made a Baroness in her own right. That is conceivable, though

most unlikely ; but when it comes to the same lady being known by a courtesy title as Lady Sylvia St. Croix one can only wonder at the author's boldness in tackling a subject of which she is obviously ignorant.