We suspect that Mr. Robert Nicholls's object in writing Under
the Yew (Seeker, 5s.) was rather that of an artist interested in the rhythms and balanced phrases of an eightftentikeeptury prose style than of a moralist desirous of -thrusting his improving story upon us. The moral is suggested clearly enough by a subsidiary title, The Gambler Transformed ; but somehow we do not take much interest in the gambler's transformation, and perhaps we are not meant to. The scenes of feverish excitement which take place at the gambling table in the house on the downs are painted with skill and feeling, and one's curiosity is sustained right up to the moment when the narrator " stepped into the dazzling moonlight " a ruined man. This five-shilling book is not much more than a long short-story, but as a finished piece of imaginative work, in a style which is to-day refreshing, we can recommend it.
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