For novels which require a guide to conduct me through them I confess weariness, but in _That Woman from Java_ (HURST AND BLACKETT) I found the glossary less fatiguing hero. Things were going badly for _Mrs. Hamilton_ in the divorce case, "_Hamilton v. Hamilton_, co-respondent _King_," when the judge broke down. That might have happened to any judge, but, although I can follow the judicial _Bruce_ quite easily to his sick bed, I cannot believe that he would, on his recovery, have refrained from finding out how the case ended. Apparently being in love with _Mrs. Hamilton_, he did not dare to enquire what happened; but a more plausible explanation of his unenterprising conduct seems to be that he had only to act like an ordinary man and the rather sandy foundations on which E. HARDINGHAM QUINN's story are built would have collapsed. Here in fact we have a tale in which the main complications are caused by the characters behaving with a total lack of what the Americans call horse-sense. But if you can get by this difficulty you will admire, as I did, the reticence with which the troubles of the much misunderstood heroine are told, and also admit that the colour of Java has been vividly conveyed. * * * * * Save the Mark! Germany's last word:-- "_Kriegsvermoegenszuwachssteuergesetz._" And a very pretty word too. But it does not surprise us to learn from the German Press that the Legislature will probably have to devote at least three weeks to the discussion of the subject which it defines. * * * * * From a book catalogue:-- "_The Royal Marriage Market of Europe._ By Princess Radziwill. With eight half-ton illustrations." It is thought that these must be portraits of German princesses taken before the War had deprived them of their usual supply of butter. * * * * * "ARTIST, Academy Exhibitor, paints gentlemen's residences." _Sunday Paper._ Another result, no doubt, of the exigencies of War, but rather hard on the ordinary house-decorator.