That clever writer, Mr. A. P. HERBERT, would lightly describe his story, _The House by the River_ (METHUEN), as a "shocker." But there are ways and ways of shocking. He might wish to show us the embarrassments of a fairly respectable member of the intellectual classes, living in a highly respectable environment, when he finds that he has committed homicide; and he might make the details as gruesome as he liked. But there was no need to shock the sensitive when he made his choice of the circumstances in which the poet, _Stephen Byrne_, inadvertently throttles his housemaid. It is a fault, too, that his scheme only interests him so far as it concerns _Stephen_ and his society, and that the horror of the tragedy from what one may loosely call the victim's point of view does not seem to affect him at all. Otherwise, even for the sake of brevity, he could not so flippantly refer to the body, sewn in a sack and thrown into the river, as just "Eliza." He may argue that he never thought of the corpse as a real one and that the whole thing was merely an experiment in imaginative art; but his details are too well realised for that, and so is his admirable picture of the society of Hammerton Chase, W., a thin disguise for a riverside neighbourhood easy to recognise. I could never get myself quite to believe that _Stephen's_ friend, _Egerton_, accessory after the fact, would so long and so tamely have borne the suspicion of it; but for the rest Mr. HERBERT'S study of his milieu shows a very intimate observation. If his _Stephen_, in whom the highest poetic talents are found tainted with a touch of coarseness, may not always be credible, the passion for self-expression which leads him on to versify his own experience in the form of a mediaeval idyll, and so give himself away, is true to life. But my final impression of Mr. HERBERT'S book--he will perhaps think I am taking him too seriously--is that his many gifts and notably his humour, whose gaiety I prefer to its grimness, are here exercised on a rather unworthy theme. * * * * * [Illustration: MARTYRS OF SCIENCE:--THE INVENTOR OF TOFFEE.] * * * * * =Fashions for Proxy-Fathers.= "The bride entered the church on the arm of Mr. T. ----, of Happy Valley (who acted in loco parentis and was charmingly attired in crepe-de-chine)."--_South African Paper._ * * * * * "Is there anyone amongst the thousands of men who will benefit who will be some an (please let the word remain, Mr. Editor) as not to show his appreciation in the same way?"--_Educational Paper._ Personally we think the Editor was a little too complaisant. * * * * * [Transcriber's Note: Page 361: Changed "corresponent" to "correspondent" (A corresponent writes to a contemporary) Page 362: Removed extraneous single closing quote.