Clerk.—by Shan F. Bullock, London, 1907. T. Werner Laurie.
So much attention hap been given to the miseries of those who belong to the black-conted brigade that one welcomes 1 book in which some light at least is mingled with the drab monotony of the life of a Twopenny Olerk. Such a book is Mr. Shan F. Ballock's story of Robert Thorne by courtesy civil servant, by contempt Man clerk in H. M. Tax Uffice. It is in its way masterpiece of mean life, not altoge cheorfal to read, but of rig ging interest and certainly true to the adage that there is a silver lining to every cloud, although Thorne's particular cloud was rather lined with rose colour than silver, of which commodity there was miserably little for himself and wife and bairns. In the end he comigrates to New Zealand, and in this respect the book is, perhaps, hardly a true story of a London clerk for that race is difficalt to excavate from its eternal groove. But we get the true picture in the descriptions of Mr. Cherry pre-work—pencila here the intolerable in the frivolities and love-affairs of Bertie; the pathos of Mr. Hope's enforced retire-mont on pension. Altogether Robert Thorne is a book of rare attractions and we should like 10 hear some day how he and "dear gentle patient noble Nell" fared in New Zealand.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.