[Illustration: _Soldier (on leave from the trenches visiting the sights
of London--before enlarged model of common flea)._ "Yes, that's it,
father! That's the kind I was tellin' you about. But it ain't much of a
specimen."]
* * * * *
The name of the author of _Youth Unconquerable_ (HEINEMANN) is given on
the title-page as _Percy Ross_. But I would willingly take a small wager
on the probability that this name conceals a feminine identity. For one
thing, no mere man surely would attempt the task of depicting the sweet
girl graduate in her native lair, often as the converse has been done.
Certainly it is improbable that he would manage to convey such an
impression of actuality. For I am sure the life of an Oxford ladies'
college must be, for many, very much what it was for _Cherry Hawthorn_.
But I am afraid this is about all that I can honestly say in praise of
the story. _Cherry_ was a young woman with red hair (it is bright
vermilion in the ugly picture of her on the cover) and no fortune. Her
late father had made her the joint ward of two young men, one an Italian
prince, and one a semi-insane Welshman. _Cherry_ accepted this provision
with a promising placidity. She, and I, anticipated marriage with one or
other of the guardians. But that was before we had seen them. The
Italian turned out to be silly, while the Welshman recalled the gloomier
imaginings of the BRONTËS, and in the event came by an appropriately
violent end. However there was a third suitor, a Scotch Duke, so all was
well. Perhaps the tale may have more success with others than with me.
But I am bound to warn you that the style of it is a wild and wonderful
thing. One is, for example, unprepared to find a gentleman's hat and
stick referred to as "his extra-mural accoutrements." And this is no
rare example. The whole thing, in fact, seems more suitable to a very
popular magazine than to the dignity of that exclusive little windmill
that forms the HEINEMANN hall-mark.
* * * * *
Our Precisionists.
"TRICYCLE for Sale cheap, 3 wheels."--_Suburban Paper._