Chapter 4

_Stephen Manaton_, heir to great possessions, found that his wealth and worldly position were slipping away from him, but as compensation against his losses he had the supreme satisfaction of discovering that the girl of his choice loved him solely for himself. So with the best will in the world I could not shed tears over _The Manaton Disaster_ (HEATH CRANTON), though I admit that Miss PHILLIPPA TYLER does her strenuous best to set my sympathy in motion. Possibly she tries a shade too hard, and in future I hope that she will cut shorter--or even cut out completely--the soliloquies of her heroes. Miss TYLER has the dramatic sense, and an author who can write over a hundred-and-fifty words without a full-stop is not to be thwarted by trifles; but she dissipates her forces and fails to reach the catastrophic climax at which she apparently aimed.

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The ways of the humorist are hard indeed, and it must be particularly exasperating, even if you are a clergyman, to be told by some disgruntled reviewer, as "GEORGE A. BIRMINGHAM" must, I am afraid, here be told, that his latest, _Good Conduct_ (MURRAY), is not up to standard. _Virginia Tempest_, the tomboy, the extremely unworthy recipient of the good conduct prize at _Miss Merridew's_ academy, has her points, but her pranks are played with or against such dull folk: an editor and assistant editor for whom I blush; an emporium owner who is kinder and wealthier and stupider than he is diverting; an assistant schoolmistress, a surgeon, a Futurist-painter, a bishop. None of these worthy people commands my respect or laughter. The high spirits seem not entirely genuine. A casual lapse into Brummagem, I take it.

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"Wanted, for 3 months, nice Bedroom and small paddock for pony."

"Six Acres Freehold Land, with Two Cottages, near Southampton; suitable pigs and poultry."--_Provincial Paper._

With bedrooms for ponies and cottages for pigs, what chance has a human of getting housed?