Crooked Answers. By Phyllis Bottome and H. De Lisle Brock.
(John Murray. 6s.)—This is a most amusing little book, told in a form which is generally anything but amusing, that is, by means of letters exchanged between the characters. There is a certain delightful Lady Sarah whose letters are far too good to be true. They deal entertainingly with every possible subject in turn, and have the great merit of never keeping to the matter in hand. She giVes a charming description of a cousin of hers who imagines he is a "Mahatma," and for whom a but is built in the garden, whereupon two of the under-gardeners give notice because they think he is a spy-. When they told the cousin about the under- gardeners, he simply said "Mirage !" and had an ecstasy. "All you have to do is to forget yourself completely ; just when you've lost a collar-stud, or trod on a woman's train, say over
and over to yourself : don't exist ! I don't exist ! I am cne with the All !'" Lady Sarah's letters are the most amusing in the story, and contain the most worldly wisdom. For instance her phrase that "a woman without a romance is like a man with- out a profession" is extremely shrewd and far-seeing. The other letters, however, make excellent light reading, and the whole story is written in extremely high spirits.
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