and so I shut both eyes and gulped as hard as I could. * * * Do you know _Mrs. Shovell? Violet Ashwin_ she was, and married young _Charlie Shovell_, some sort of a publisher and really rather a nice fool. She is an absolute dear. Gay and loyal and adorably kind. No, not a bit sentimental. Shy and yet has a way with her, and, thank Heaven, not the least bit of a scalp-hunter. We did think that _Master Charles_, who was distinctly by way of being a philanderer, mightn't perhaps run quite straight. But she's done wonders with him. Might I introduce you? Certainly? Then get _Duke Jones_ (SIDGWICK AND JACKSON), by ETHEL SIDGWICK. She's entirely responsible for these nice people, and for _Lady Ashwin, Violet's_ utter beast of a mother, and _Sir Claude_, that brick of a man and doctor, and insufferable _Honoria_ and naughty bewitching _Lisette_, who came badly to grief and was pulled out of a really rotten hole by _Jones. E. M. Jones_ (_M_ for _Marmaduke_) was the fellow who worshipped _Violet_ at sight and was ever after her faithful dog.... I've put down this book with real regret. I can't help worrying as to whether there really is such a person as _Violet_ because I might have the fortune to meet her. Really, Miss SIDGWICK has an extraordinary power of making you feel friends (or bitter enemies) with her puppets, who aren't puppets at all. I've had the bad luck to miss _A Lady of Leisure_, to which _Duke Jones_ is a sequel, but I'll readily take the responsibility of advising you to get it first. * * * Those who do not accept Archbishop LANG'S view that the KAISER is too sacred a subject for mirth should spend sixpence and a quarter of an hour on _Keep Smiling_ (NASH). In dealing with the inexhaustible theme of WILLIAM'S Lie Factory, Messrs. WALTER EMANUEL and JOHN HASSALL are at their best. * * * * * Illustration: _Sergeant Instructor._ "WHAT'S YER NAME?" _Sir Angelo Frampington, R.A._ "FRAMPINGTON." _Sergeant._ "WELL, 'OLD YER 'EAD UP, FRAMPINGTON." * * * * *