OTHER NOVELS.—The Terror by Night. By George W. Gough. (Blackwood.
7s. 6d.)—A good example of the period novel with no pretensions beyond amusement. What period exactly it belongs to would be difficult to say, but in the chronology of Romance it is easily placed. It is the time when highwaymen are called " knights of the road " ; when handsome horsemen cut your purse with a bow and remove your rings with a bon-mot. Whoever would inquire more precisely has a warped nature beyond the touch of romantic illusion.—The Stiff Lip. By W. L. George. (Chapman and Hall. 7s. 6d. net.)—A novel of the bathroom and the toilette. Claire Caldecot finds that her long-preserved charms are beginning to wane. As yet her lover hasn't noticed ; and, lest he should, she dismisses him. She is thus left without male companionship and pines away ; but her bad old husband comes back to her and promises to reform. Mr. W. L. George used to write better than this.—The Van Roan. By J. C. Snaith. (Appleton and Co. 7s. 6d. net.)— We can always depend upon Mr. Snaith for good entertain- ment. In his latest novel he tells, us of the excitements of situation and the conflicts of temperament that the discovery of a painting by a great master gave rise to. There are really vigorous struggles before the right side gains the day ; and the events, though wild, are not incredible. A fairy story, doubtless, but a good and convincing one.—The Dancer, and Other Tales. By Stephen Tallents. (Constable. 7s. 6d.)—To get rid of our grudges first : Mr. Tallents' women are a little too much of a mixture of Rosalind and Diana of the Crossways, and there is always a tinge of sentimentality in his tales. Apart from this they are in many ways excellent ; the author has the literary habit of appropriate and fresh quotation, he is capable of vivid description, and his short stories have that atmosphere of careful and balanced inconclusiveness which appeals so strongly to modem taste.
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