The Camino% Touch. By Austin Phillips. (Smith, Elder and Co.
6s.)—This novel deals with the history of a girl who, wanting to become a novelist, endeavours to put herself in touch with every- day life. She is the more to be applauded for this decision because she has got into the hands of a Socialistic society where ordinary middle-class life is merely scorned and not studied. Monica Priestly, however, has the good sense to go and study provincial life from behind the counter of the post-office of a country town. Here she recognizes the dangerous nature of her former ideals and the amount of drama which lies among the quiet events of commonplace existence. The study of middle-class society in a provincial town is very well done, and the postmaster, Otto Tremayne, is excellently drawn. He is a most cultivated and charming person, and many readers will wonder that Monica should have preferred to him the more con- ventional Dr. Petrie, a gentleman of splendid proportions and indomitable determination. The book is a very careful piece of work, and photographs life with great fidelity.
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