SIX MONTHS TO LIVE. By Charles Herbert. (Wells, Gardner. 7s.
6d.)—Many novelists have toyed with the question as to how a man will behave who knows that a term is fixed to his life. Mr. Herbert supplies the same theme—with variations. Dr. Ernholt, compelled to consult a jealous and hostile rival specialist, is told, out of sheer pique, that he has only six months to live. -Ernholt, shocked at the thought of impending death, determines to revenge himself upon the world, and conceives the idea of telling the next five patients who visit him that they, too, cannot live much longer. Weaving their stories into a single plot, Mr. Herbert describes the effect which the fatal verdict has on these patients, who include a baronet, a well-known novelist, and a nurse. Possibly Mr. Herbert has too much faith in human nature. At any rate, all his characters are reformed and spiritualized before they learn that they have been hoaxed, and Ernholt himself, who began as a materialist and a cynic, ends by finding religious assurance. But, if he parades his moral a little too much, Mr. Herbert has at least written an ingenious and readable tale, with many incidental touches of real vitality and truth.
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