I forget just how long it is since Mr. ARNOLD BENNETT united _Edwin Clayhanger_ and _Hilda Lessways_ in the bonds of matrimony. Time goes so fast these days that I met them again, and _Auntie Hamps_, and _Maggie_, and _Clara_, and the rest of the Three Towns company, as after an enormous interval. They themselves however have changed in nothing, except perhaps that the habit of introspection and their phenomenal capacity for self-astonishment have become more pronounced. "He thought, 'I am I; this wife is my wife; and if I put one foot before the other I shall go inevitably forward.' And it seemed to him stupendous." I do not say that this is a quotation, but it represents a habit of mind that is in danger of growing, upon _Edwin_ especially. He seems never able to share my own entire confidence in Mr. BENNETT'S efficiency as creator. Of course nothing very much happens in the course of _These Twain_ (METHUEN). It is simply a study of conjugal existence in its effect upon character; briefly, how to be happy though married. In the end _Edwin_ seems to hit upon a sort of solution with the discovery that injustice is a natural condition to be accepted rather than resented. So one leaves the two with some prospect, a little insecure, of happiness. Needless to say the study of both _Edwin_ and _Hilda_ is marvellously penetrating and minute, almost to the point of defeating its own end. I had, not for the first time with Mr. BENNETT'S characters, a feeling that I knew them too well to have complete belief in them. They become not portraits but anatomical diagrams. But for all that the accuracy of his observation is undeniable. One sees it in those minor personalities of the tale whom he is content to record from without. _Auntie Hamps_, for example, and Clara are two masterpieces of portraiture. You must read _These Twain_; but if possible take time over it. * * * * *