_Kenneth, Dugdale_ (METHUEN), the prize prig (according to the
verdict of his Mess), became a brave and efficient subaltern; and the
author's idea of bringing him by means of the discipline of war-training
and war itself to a better understanding of the ordinary spontaneous
fighting types, and of bringing these by the same discipline to a
readier appreciation of the intellectual and idealist position, is well
enough worked out. The character-drawing impressed me less favourably.
The author, I should say, finds it rather difficult to understand
the ordinary good or indifferent fellow with his qualities and their
defects. I doubt the possibility of such a snake in the grass as
_Lieutenant Seymour_ carrying on without getting kicked. Nor do I think
that that simple soldier man, _Fortescue, V.C._, would have so tamely
accepted _Dugdale's_ betrayal to the woman they both loved of the fact
that he had just seen his rival putting a dubious young lady into a cab
in Regent Street at midnight. There is a good deal of thoughtful work
in this novel which should be interesting to amateur students of the
psychology of war and men of war.
* * * * *
The latest of Mrs. J. B. BUCKROSE'S genial little comedies about a
comfortable world is concerned with war-weddings, their cause, and some
hints for their successful conduct.
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