Miss F. E. Mills Young, in Imprudence (Hodder and Stoughton), is not at the top of her form, but a neat and effective finish makes some amends for a performance which is, like the wind in a weather report, mainly moderate or light. The heroine, Prudence Graynor, was the child of her father's second marriage, and she was afflicted with a battalion of elderly half-sisters and one quite detestable half-brother. This battalion was commanded by one Agatha, and it submitted to her orders and caprices in a way incomprehensible to Prudence—and incidentally to me. The Graynors and also the Morgans were of "influential commercial stock," and both families were so essentially Victorian in their outlook and manner of living that I was surprised when 1914 was announced. The trouble with this story is that too many of the characters are drawn from the stock-pot. But I admit that, before we have done with them, they acquire a certain distinction from the adroitness with which the author extricates them from apparently hopeless situations.
MORE WORRIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
The Goat. "Who are you?"
The Man (greatly disturbed). "Who? Me? I—I'm the new gamekeeper."
The Goat. "Well, I'm the late gamekeeper. You see, old Bilks the sorcerer took to poaching lately, and I was fool enough to catch him at it."