the author still deals with American society, but here his background is the consideration of the evil influences of inheritance in old families. The scene is still New York and Long Island, full of the charm of outdoor life and hunting episodes. The principal male character _Siward_ is cursed with the inheritance of drink. _Siward's_ struggles to conquer his Enemy, and the fighting chance he sees at last in the affection of a girl, carry on the story to a hopeful finish. The novel has been published two years and a few months and more than 250,000 copies have been sold, so that its claims to success are undeniable. THE RECKONING The varied interests of the author which have been suggested above are sustained in this novel. It is a story of a side light of the American Revolution, and it makes the fourth novel in a series of books telling in fiction of the scenes and invoking the characters in the Mohawk Valley during the war for American Independence. The first novel of the series was "Cardigan"; the second, "The Maid-at-Arms"; the third is still to be written, when the distinguished author can find time; while "The Reckoning" is the last. IOLE Another splendid example of the author's versatility is this farcical, humorous satire on the _art nouveau_ of to-day. Mr. Chambers, with all his knowledge of the artistic jargon, has in this little novel created a pious fraud of a father, who brings up his eight lovely daughters in the Adirondacks, where they wear pink pajamas and eat nuts and fruit, and listen to him while he lectures them and everybody else on art. It is easy to imagine what happens when several rich and practical young New Yorkers stumble upon this group. Everybody is happy in the end. THE TRACER OF LOST PERSONS Here again is a totally different vein of half humor and half seriousness. Mr. Chambers selects a firm of detectives (based, by the way, on fact) who guarantee to find lost persons, missing heirs, etc. In this case the author's fancy and humor suggest to a young bachelor, who has always had an ideal girl in mind, that he go and describe her as a real person to _Mr. Keen_, the Tracer of Lost Persons. He gives his description, and, as may be supposed, _Mr. Keen_ finds the girl, but after such a series of episodes, escapes, discoveries and denouements that it takes a full-grown novel to accomplish the task. THE TREE OF HEAVEN