In contemplating the present season's output of fiction I have been impressed by the number of novels that might apparently have been written with an eye to the conditions that attended their publication. Which, unless one credits our romancers with much further sight than is commonly supposed to be their portion, is absurd. The thing is a coincidence; and of this there is no more striking example than the story that ANNE DOUGLAS SEDGWICK has prepared for the world this autumn. She calls it _The Encounter_ (ARNOLD), and it is all about the struggle between "the Nietzschean attitude of mind in Germany," as exemplified in an egotistical, crack-brained genius named _Ludwig Wehlitz_, and the ideals of civilized Christianity exemplified in several other more agreeable persons. You will own that this is at least _a propos_. The whole thing is, of course, quite charmingly told. All the characters are thoroughly alive; most of all perhaps the placid, tolerant and entirely practical mother of the heroine. _Persis Fennamy_ had been introduced to the genius as a suitable disciple and possible helpmate by the _Signorina Zardo_, who worshipped him from afar. _Persis_ met _Ludwig_, was interested, impressed and even willing to admire. There were two other men also, attendant upon the great one: _Conrad Sachs_, who was gentle and deformed, and _Graf von Ludenstein_, who represented another type of German manhood. He represented it so well, indeed, that, when _Mrs. Fennamy_ discovered that he had taken _Persis_ off for an intimate conversation in a wood, even her tolerant placidity was deranged. But it was all right, and _Persis_ escapes heart-whole from the lot of them, clay superman and all. She is to be congratulated. So is the author, for her book is both apt to the moment and interesting in itself. * * *