Piston Parish. By Florence Moore. (S.P.C.K.)—The tale begins somewhat stiffly.
Mr. Paget, Vicar of Pixton, comes home and finds his wife with a bad headache. "I hope the servants have not been worrying you," he says. That is expressed naturally enough. But when he goes on to say, "I believe that these violent headaches are often caused by their neglect and carelessness," he is too formal. " Careless and forgetful creatures, I know they cause half your trouble ! " would have been more like it. The two go on talking far more for the benefit of the reader than for their own. However, the tale improves in style as it goes on and is a really pathetic and effective little story. But is the good farmer who takes a glebe farm at thirty shillings an acre, though the Vicar thinks it too much, and pays a half-year's rent in advance, still alive ? Are there any of his brothers about ?
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