Chill Hours. By Helen Mackay. (Melrose. 6s. net.)—The hours written
of are very chill indeed, and some of the stories are almost too poignant to be borne by people who have been affected by the events of the last five years. The author carries the art of selection to a fine point, and there is never a word too much in her terrible little sketches. The longer study called " Nostalgia " is an experiment in a rather different mood. It is perhaps a dangerous experiment, in that one word too much or too little makes the difference between triviality and poig- nancy. It is difficult, for instance, to say-whether the reiterated nursery phrase " Once upon a time " is or is not quite successful in putting the reader in sympathy with the mood of the writer, but of the beauty of some of the sketches of Normandy in May- time there can be no question.
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