THE FOLLOWING FEET. By Norman Venner. (Heine.. mann. 7s. 6d.)—The
title is taken from The Hound of Heaven. Oliver Honey, who has been treated badly by the War and worse by his family, finds himself freed by the death of his sister, with a thousand pounds and only six months to live—unless he is willing to purchase longer life by mere inactivity. Having rejected all friendly advances and given away all his possessions but the thousand pounds, he ties this portable property round his waist, and, inspired by Alfred, the tramp, who considers existence " a juicy swindle," he goes wandering through the South of England in search of some reason good enough to explain his thwarted life. The police refusing to let him continue to sleep in a perfectly good haystack, he is invited to a charming rectory where a priest assures him in vain that life goes on for the glory of God. He is lured through the hedge by the lovely Lydia, a kind of intellectual hetaera, who offers a period of pagan felicity, but a chance ferryman unconsciously convinces him that hedonism is no solution. A pessimist fisherman commits suicide thugs attack him ; a keeper rescues him and sells him a dog ; the painter Clifton Vale, who has made an art of the processes of life, is first attracted by him, then tries to kill him at the idyllic farm where Oliver, still ascetic, has refused the physical bounty of Rose Pacey. Thereafter he loses his dog, wanders in the marshes, is robbed of all his money by a tramp, and, utterly exhausted, slips into a church where for a moment he ex- periences the miracle of faith while the aged priest chants the Twenty-third Psalm Peace passes again ; and for a while he lies in the priest's garden, " uncritical as a cat," clutching merely his " rag of time." This he throws away when he can save the children in the attic of the burning rectory only by ringing the church bell. Oliver's difficulties seem a little elementary, and the philosophy of the book is not profound. But his humours are more original than his intellect, and his journey proceeds through a wonderful countryside. This is quite an unusual novel.
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