Simpson of Snell's: By William Hewlett, Author of "The Child at the Window," "Introducing William Allison," "The Plot Maker," etc. Cloth, with an attractive coloured wrapper, 6s. net.
This is a story, or rather study, of a young clerk, the type of clerk that the modern commercial machine turns out by the hundred thousand as a by-product of our civilization. Simpson, invoicing clerk at Snell's, the celebrated patent-food people, had always seen life through the medium of thirty shillings a week, and the only oasis in his dreary desert of existence was his annual fortnight at Margate, where flannels, cheap excitements and "girls" abounded.
Why did not Mr. William Hewlett leave Simpson in this humble obscurity? Well, because Destiny had a great and moving part for him in the comedy of life! I don't think Simpson ever realized it was a "part" he was playing. It was certainly not the part he planned for himself, and throughout the period in which, at Mr. Hewlett's bidding he appears as a public character, he is seen almost invariably doing the thing he dislikes.
Simpson would have pursued the customary course of clerking and philandering to the end of his days, had it not been for an enterprising hosier, an unenterprising actor and the egregious Ottley—the public-school "Spark" dropped into Snell's like a meteor from the skies. The hosier and the actor introduced poor Simpson to "temperament," and temperament is a restive horse in a needy clerk's stable. But Ottley introduced him to Winnie. Winnie was there before, of course, a typist in his own office. But it was not until Ottley wove his evil web for Nancy that Winnie wove her innocent spell for Simpson. And because Winnie held Simpson securely and loved her friend's honour better than her own happiness, he rose to the full height of manhood, and to make the supreme sacrifice which turned him, an avowed enemy of heroics, into the greatest and most unexpected of heroes.
The story has a strong love-interest running through it with a most dramatic ending. It cannot fail to increase Mr. William Hewlett's popularity, and the publishers wish to draw special attention to it.
A LADY "SHERLOCK HOLMES."
A FINE NOVEL BY A NEW AUTHOR.
The Green Jacket: By Jennette Lee. A thrilling story of a Lady Detective who unravels a great Jewel Mystery. Cloth, and with an attractive coloured wrapper, 6s. net.