56. _At Isham’s_, by _Edward C. Venable_ (Scribner’s Magazine). The zest of this story consists in the intellectual subtlety of mental conflict. It contrasts the characters of several _habitués_ of a New York café who form a little group each night for endless discussion. The value of the story rests in the manner in which events bring out variations in character, and the solution of the story is as absorbing as a chess problem. 57. _De Vilmarte’s Luck_ (Harper’s Magazine) and 58. _Huntington’s Credit_ (Harper’s Magazine), by _Mary Heaton Vorse_. In these two stories there is a marked contrast of subject matter. “De Vilmarte’s Luck” is a study of the artistic temperament, with fine ironies keenly portrayed. The war provides the story with a solution which reveals the finer grain. In “Huntington’s Credit” we have a study in suppressed desires, very quietly told, with a poignancy softened somehow by the quality of character. In these two stories Mary Heaton Vorse has given us the best work written by her in the last four years. 59. _The White Battalion_, by _Frances Gilchrist Wood_ (The Bookman). Here is the last of the fine supernatural legends inspired during the past year by the Great War. The White Battalion of the dead which fights on the side of the Allies is comparable to the marching host seen by Harrison Rhodes in “Extra Men,” but there is an _élan_ in this story which suggests a deeper spiritual background. 60. _In the House of Morphy_, by _John Seymour Wood_ (Scribner’s Magazine). This legend of old New Orleans has the romantic glow of Mr. Cable’s best novels linked to a well-developed plot with a fine quality of logical surprise. It is one of the best stories written by a fastidious artist of the old school who appears seldom in our magazines, and always with the finest substance that he can give. ARTICLES ON THE SHORT STORY, JANUARY TO OCTOBER, 1918 _The following abbreviations are used in this index:—_ _Atl._ .....................Atlantic Monthly _Bel._ .....................Bellman _B. E. T._ ................Boston Evening Transcript _Bk. News Mo._ ........Book News Monthly _Book._ ...............Bookman _Cen._ ................Century Magazine _C. O._ ...............Current Opinion _Cos._ ................Cosmopolitan _F. A. Suppl._ ........Fine Arts Supplement _For._ ................Forum _Lit. R._ .............Little Review _Liv. Age_ ............Living Age _Mir._ ................Reedy’s Mirror _N. A. Rev._ ..........North American Review _N. Rep._ .............New Republic _Outl. (London)_ ......London Outlook _So. Atl. Quart._ .....South Atlantic Quarterly _Strat. J._ ...........Stratford Journal _Yale R._ .............Yale Review _(161)_ ...............Page 161 _(11:161)_ ............Volume 11, page 161 American Short Stories of 1917, The Best Sixty-Three. By Edward J. O’Brien. Book. Feb. (46:696.)