The White Wolf, and other Fireside Tales. By - ft Q."
(Methuen and Co. 6s.)—" Q's" idea of a "fireside tale" is not always such as approves itself to our taste. In the story which gives a title to the volume a Norse seaman boards a derelict, and finds a pair of lovers frozen to death, along with a manuscript which tells their story. A " fireside " story may rightly, be terrifying—the ghost story, for instance, has an immemorial right to the title—but it should not be dismal. " Sindbad on Burrator " and " Victor " do not please us any better. In the "Burgomeister van der Werf " " Q " gets into a happier vein. We cannot go through the whole of the twenty-one stories. That they are clever, sometimes very clever, need hardly be said. But there is just a trace of carelessness in them. " Q " must know that a man cannot receive Holy Orders, and then, after advertising in vain for a curacy, be presented to a living (" Parson Jack," p. 223). He must secure his curacy first.
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