Fiction
FOUR O'CLOCKt -By_ Mary Borden. (Heinemann. .7s. 6d. net.)-These brilliant 'stories are undoubtedly among the best published for a .'considerable time. Mrs. Borden writes with great ease. add' understanding, both of high life and low. For instance' N6 ;Verdict " tears the law court formality away from the trial of the survivor of a suicide pact. Equally piteous and lit with rare sympathy is the story of the London hostesk: who :went out ot'her mind with the sheer worry of housing every-existing celebrity. - The poor, harassed thing gives a brilliant -party to meet` an unknown guest, and at supper conVerkei With animation toiothing at all in the vacant chair at her side,--chatting of olive groves and morals. This story is called "To Meet Jesus Christ"-and is perhaps the bitterest comment ever made in good temper on modern social life. Quite terrifying,- and yet' like all the tales, is " Siegfried and the Stepdaughter," which uses the strange effect of Pirandello's Six Characters " on a sensitive member of its
-audience, as material. _ . The authoress writes all kind of People in all sorts of walks of life. Her construction is very finished and there is real distinction and point about every one of these ten stories.
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