The real merit of the book lies not in this improbable plot, but in its moving chapters upon a little treated phase of the last Franco-German fighting. These are well done. * * * * * Many gentle readers will be well pleased to hear that AGNES and EGERTON CASTLE are giving them more news of that engaging heroine, _Lady Kilcroney_. True, in the new book _Kitty_ herself plays but a subordinate part, but as her dainty mantle of insolence and charm appeals to have fallen on the shoulders of a worthy successor no one need grumble upon that score. The new book is called _The Ways of Miss Barbara_ (SMITH ELDER), and I daresay that having said so much I might spare myself the pains of telling precisely what those ways were. Do you need to hear how _Mistress Barbara_ (who was a kind of eighteenth-century _Becky Sharp_ without the sting) was befriended by _Lady Kitty_ and her susceptible lord? How the noble carriage was waylaid on its journey from Paris to the coast? How the highwayman was eventually brought to hook by the wiles of _Barbara_, who in the long run marries a duke, and is left preparing for permanent prosperity? Whether this last expectation will be fulfilled without preliminary troubles I take leave to doubt. Indeed, the situation as regards _Barbara_ and her ducal spouse is left so full of intriguing possibilities that I could not but suspect those clever campaigners, the EGERTON CASTLES, of having artfully arranged it as a kind of concrete foundation from which to attack the public sympathy later on. This is as may be. Meanwhile here is a pleasantly sparkling comedy with which, I vow, you are like to find yourself vastly well pleased. * * * * * [Illustration: GERMAN SPY REPORTS TO HEADQUARTERS. "HAVE VISITED ARMY AND NAVY STORES. FIND BRITISH FORCES BEING SUPPLIED WITH MANY USELESS ARTICLES CALCULATED TO EMBARRASS THEIR MOVEMENTS."] [Transcriber's Note: Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.] End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Punch, Or the London Charivari, Volume 148, January 6th, 1915, by Various