Queer Lady Judas. By Rita. (Hutchinson and Co. 6s.)—The present
mission of the lady who writes wader the name of "Rita" seems to be the lashing of the vices of the aristocracy, and in this book she attacks the women of London with immense vigour. We have been told so often lately that London society is rotten to the core that plain people may be excused if they think that there must be some truth in the accusation. Yet there are plenty of excellent hard-working men and women whose names are included in the pages of "Debrett,"—people who may be supposed to have some part in the social life of London. The conclusions come to in novels of this kind remind the reader of the song in one of Gilbert and Sullivan's operas, "Oh fool, that judgest from half the whole." The fact is that the doings of the "fast" people in society achieve such a succds de scandals that no one ever writes of any other set. In the present instance "Rita" may be excused for only seeing a very small portion of the social world, for if you set up your heroine in the first chapter as a lady's "beauty doctor," she, of course, does only see the frivolous section of the women of London. In other circumstances it might be well for authors not to take too narrow a view even of the social world, and to remember that those who make the loudest noise are not always the most influential members of the community.
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