Mr. ST. JOHN G. ERVINE is a versatile author who exhibits that unevenness of quality which is generally the besetting sin of versatile authors. When he is good he is very good indeed, and in _The Foolish Lovers_ (COLLINS) he is at his best. The Ulsterman is seldom either a lovable or an interesting character. He has certain rude virtues which command respect and other qualities, not in themselves virtues--such as clan conceit and an intensely narrow provincialism--that beget the virtues of industry, honesty and frugality. But to the philosopher and student of character all types are interesting, and Mr. ERVINE'S skill lies in his ability not merely to draw his Ballyards hero to the life but to interest us in his unsuccessful efforts to become a successful writer. It is merely clan conceit that drives him forward in the pursuit of this purpose, for circumstances have clearly intended him to carry on the grocery business in which the family have achieved some success and a full measure of local esteem. The _MacDermotts_ never failed to accomplish their purpose; he, as a _MacDermott_, proposed to achieve fame as a novelist. It was quite simple. But it turned out to be not at all simple. The quite provincial young _MacDermott_ cannot make London accept him at his own valuation and his novels are poor stuff. His wife, loyal to him but still more loyal to the _MacDermott_ clan into which she has married and which now includes a little _MacDermott_, is the first to recognise that her husband had best seek romance in the family grocery business. Then the _MacDermott_ himself, with that shrewdness which may be late in coming to an Ulsterman but never fails him altogether, realises it too and the story is finished. * * * * * The main object of the characters in _The Courts of Idleness_ (WARD, LOCK) was to amuse themselves, and as their sprightly conversations were often punctuated by laughter I take it that they succeeded. To give Mr. DORNFORD YATES his due he is expert in light banter; but some three hundred pages of such entertainment tend to create a sense of surfeit. The first part of the book is called, "How some passed out of the Courts for ever," and then comes an interlude, in which we are given at least one stirring war-incident. I imagine that Mr. YATES desires to show that, although certain people could frivol with the worst, they could also fight and die bravely. The second part, "How others left the Courts only to return," introduces a new set of people but with similar conversational attainments. Mr. YATES can be strongly recommended to anyone who thinks that the British take themselves too seriously. * * * * * =A Burning Question.= "The Germans have singed the Protocol."--_China Advertiser_. * * * * * =A Master of Deduction.=