Chapter 4

The name of Mr. GORDON GARDINER is unfamiliar to me; but I have little doubt that if _The Reconnaissance_ (CHAPMAN AND HALL) is a first novel its author will improve upon work that struck me as at present somewhat ingenuously conventional. There are two parts to the tale; the first shows how _Leslie_ earned popular applause and the V.C. by remaining with a wounded comrade whom he was actually too frightened to leave. That was a good beginning, and I said to myself that Mr. GARDINER was of the right stuff; he had a vigorous, incisive style that suited well the matter of pain and anguish that he had in hand. But, alas! in its hours of case the story became much more uncertain. All the characters, including the involuntary hero and the man he rescued (now a lord), turn up at an hotel on the Lake of Como. There is some mild word-painting that may remind you pleasantly of pleasant places; and a disproportionate pother because in one of the sudden lake storms _Leslie_ dashes for shelter into what he supposes to be his own bedroom (actually the heroine's) and is imprisoned there by the sticking of a shutter. An awkward incident, of course, especially as it occurred in the dead of night, but scarcely enough to make half a novel out of. Naturally, in the end _Leslie_ owns up about the heroism, and goes away to justify his unearned credit upon the stricken field; but I am afraid I must confess that the prospect of his return left me indifferent. I understand that _The Reconnaissance_ originally appeared in _The Daily Telegraph_; this being so, the persistence with which its characters quote extracts from _The Times_ savours almost of filial ingratitude. Seriously, the first part of the novel was a promise which the second left unfulfilled. Mr. GARDINER is still in my debt.

* * * * *

TO THE CABINET.

(_Suggested by a recent doctoring of "Hansard."_)

The judgment of the People's "Yea" or "Nay" Wherefore should virtuous men like _you_ shun? You are--or so you confidently say-- Prepared for dissolution.

Then snatch a hint from HALDANE'S little fake, Who glanced with eye alert and beady at His speech in proof, and, for appearance' sake, Added the word "_immediate_."

* * * * *

"The very clever may bethink themselves of Milton's 'subject of all verse.'"--_Reynolds' Newspaper._

The mere well-informed will bethink themselves of BROWNE.