[Illustration: _Elderly Gentleman (alone in a compartment with fully-armed soldier, next stop one hour)._ "EXCUSE ME, MY MAN, BUT YOUR FACE IS STRANGELY FAMILIAR TO ME." _Soldier (with meaning)._ "QUITE LIKELY, SIR, SEEIN' AS YOU WERE THE GENT IN THE TRIBUNAL WHO MADE GAME OF ME BEIN' A CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR. BUT YOU'LL BE GLAD TO 'EAR I'VE CHANGED MY MIND, AND I AIN'T _NOW_ GOT ANY OBJECTION TO TAKIN' 'UMAN LIFE."] * * * * * When Mr. FRANKFORT MOORE is not out to be funny I enjoy his novels, and _The Rise of Raymond_ (HUTCHINSON) is pleasantly free from humorous intent. _Raymond's_ father, a cheap house-furnisher by trade, was a terribly blighting person of peculiar religious views. By rod and rote he tried to instil his narrow creed into his son, and the latter's suffering during this process is revealed all the more forcibly because it is not unduly insisted upon. Though _Raymond_ has his quiverful of virtues, one's powers of belief in them, though taxed heavily enough, are not super-taxed. It may seem curious that this young man, whose vocation it was during some of the best years of his life to handle and sell uninspiring things like linoleum, should have had artistic tastes; but as the reason for this endowment is not given away until the very end of the story I prefer not to give it away at all. In contrast to the scorn and ridicule scattered over the puritanical sect of which _Raymond's_ parents were members, the Church of England parson, _Mr. Bosover_, receives a very warm pat on the back. "The tradition of gentleman is kept alive by the English parson. He is the only remaining interpreter of that ancient _culte_." So now you know. * * * * *