"To arns st, Crocomug—By Esmee ten, Messrs Duco do Months Prices 108, Roy Ffolliot's advent into this vale of tears was decidedly irregular, as determined by the standards of Mrs. Grundy. Shortly after coming, his mother yielded to her lover's persuasion, and they were married, the husband repairing to the ancestral estate in Ireland in ample time to claim practically rything in sight by virtue of primogeniture. For a brief space, the three lived very happily; and then Arthur, her beloved Arthur, died, leaving Nell with the full responsibility of Roy's upbringing. To this task she set herself, first Ly renouncing, in favour of Cyril and and their little son Dion, all rights ard title in the Irish estate, and next by repairing, with Roy, to the seclusion of Canterbury where, you may be certain, she created considerable gossip.
Here, Mrs, Ffolliot found ample surcease in her faith, which was th A clue to her ligious zeal is found in the former confession that, had loved even. before here tet ye ie oura ership hi who fal she
Inareiaie, he. had crowned their ence that Kay she wus a Roman... That kat was why she fecuuse ae "eat ven when the fruit of her was she,
his marriage with ekuaed to act hein "of the AAT FINE
Tua out of wellock This is an indication of Nell Ffolliot's character. There hav been, qnd ere many Mrs. Ffolliot's and of varying religions. Nor is it necessarily astounding to learn of her determination to preserve Roy from a knowledge of the world. This experiment, in similar cireumstances, has been made repeatedly:
with but one outcome. Ordinarily, Roy Ffolliot would have acquired a huge fund of misinformotion and had an affair with some bucolfe were; -his mother would have paid the shot, and Roy would have settled down' to middle-class some nice girl to help keep respectable, No such conventional solution to.
Roy Ffolliot' Mr is freed' from his mother's apron strings, and sent to London. Here he meets many strange persons, strange, in fact, that one reverts constantly to the author's assurance that "The characters in this. book are imaginary and are not portraits of any Not that it actually requires this] assurance, after meeting them one after the other; but it is nice to find it there, time and again. It affords one the same pleasant assurance had after an unpleasant dream, that it was only a dream. Take the case of Mr. Drovesnap: non!" sid a al This) sao from. an exquisite Rentleman of Atty. with purple hair eres of maure, lesion, who was' atticed in Slegant' morning. suit of silver grey, Sith' large puff tie of mauve satin, tie-pin, an inset of narrow waite This was Mr. Drovesnap, from the window of where house young Loring east himself, Mr. "Drovesnap, whose guests "dressed" for by donning pyjamas.
Loring dead! Hew it prayed upon Roy, and how it preyed upon his mother, and her, spiritual advisors, when it got ito the papers throwzh Roy being a witness at the inquest. How came he to be present, in the first place? What had! had done nothing; and, having done this, he promptly fled from the re-Jcolleetion of it. He puts the Tand behind him, and the salt tang of it. the four winds of heaven is his tone. From port to port he wan-Jders, ever astounding his shipmates with his strange complex, till at length pneumonia claims him in an out-of-the-way spot in France. It is only as he lies dying, floating down a mysterious stream "to kiss the crocodile," that he awakes to the realization of a physical side to his nature, and the equally poignant knowledge that he loves Millie, Millie who is later to receive, per parcels post, what remains of his clothing and other effects. is one of the few real characters in the story. There are one or two, but they quickly fade from the picture by reason of having loved, wed, and known the joys of parent" hood in so conventional a manner jas to occlude the author's further interest in them, So ends what might aptly be call-Jed "The Biography of a Washout." The query propounds itself, "What it all about?" Certain will read its intention clearly between the Hines. Others will remain sorely puzzled. In view of the author' avowal of the unre ple whom he portrays, it cannot be a study of character. If it is intended as a contribution to the sub-is utterly lacking in scientific' foundation, as ubsurd as the denouement of Mr.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.