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[Illustration:  Prospective Employer. “HOW OLD ARE YOU?” Applicant for Post. “FOURTEEN—­AND UNMARRIED.”]

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These wrapper-artists should really exercise a little more discretion.  To depict on the outside of a book the facsimile of a cheque for ten thousand pounds might well be to excite in some readers a mood of wistfulness only too apt to interfere with their appreciation of the contents.  Fortunately, Uncle Simon (HUTCHINSON) is a story quite cheery enough even to banish reflections on the Profiteer.  A middle-aged and ultra-respectable London solicitor, whose thwarted youth periodically awakes in him and insists upon his indulging all those follies that should have been safely finished forty-odd years before—­here, you will admit, is a figure simply bursting with every kind of possibility.  Fortunately, moreover, MARGARET and H. DE VERE STACPOOLE have shown themselves not only fully alive to all the humorous chances of their theme, but inspired with an infectious delight in them.  It is, for example, a singularly happy touch that the wild oats that Uncle Simon tries to retrieve are not of to-day but from the long-vanished pastures of mid-Victorian London.  Of course such a fantasy can’t properly be ended.  Having extracted (as I gratefully admit) the last ounce of entertainment from him, the authors simply wake Uncle Simon up and go home.  As a small literary coincidence I may perhaps add that it was my fortune to read the book in the very garden (of that admirable Shaftesbury inn) which, under a transparent disguise, is the scene of Uncle Simon’s restoration.  Naturally this enhanced my enjoyment of a sportive little comedy, which I can most cordially commend.

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Mr. ST. JOHN G. ERVINE is a versatile author who exhibits that unevenness of quality which is generally the besetting sin of versatile authors.  When he is good he is very good indeed, and in The Foolish Lovers (COLLINS) he is at his best.  The Ulsterman is seldom either a lovable or an interesting character.  He has certain rude virtues which command respect and other qualities, not in themselves virtues—­such as clan conceit and an intensely narrow provincialism—­that beget the virtues of industry, honesty and frugality.  But to the philosopher and student of character all types are interesting, and Mr. ERVINE’S skill lies in his ability not merely to draw his Ballyards hero to the life but to interest us in his unsuccessful efforts to become a successful writer.  It is merely clan conceit that drives him forward in the pursuit of this purpose, for circumstances have clearly intended him to carry on the grocery business in which the family have achieved some success and a full measure of local esteem.  The MacDermotts never failed to accomplish their purpose; he, as a MacDermott,