The Advanced Guard. By Sydney C. Grier. (Blackwood and Sons.
6s.)—Mr. Grier has allowed his love of a series of stories to lead him this time backwards instead of forwards. "The Warden of the Marches," published last year, is really the sequel to this present book, and the child Missy is, of course, the Georgia of the second story. It gives the reader a queer topsy-turvy feeling to read about the Chief, Major Keeling, and to remember having met the gentleman as a ghost in the former noveL However, the book is full of interesting adventures, and the pictun of the India of the " Company's " day is curious and vivid. Mr. Grier's Anglo-Indian heroines have the oddest way of allowing themselves to be talked into engagements with gentlemen they really dislike, —the present heroine, Penelope, particularly objects to the man to whom she is engaged for half the book. But readers who remember "The Warden of the Marches" remain unmoved, since it is quite obvious to them that she is bound in the end to marry Major Keeling. It is difficult to feel that a novel is not a little discounted by its sequel being already published, but readers who are fond of a good story of adventure, and have not yet read last year's book, cannot do better for their Easter holiday than begin on The Advanced Guard, and then get a copy of "The Warden of the Marches" and read it as Vol. II.
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